BSP, ADB turn over AVCF project to ACPC

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) formally turned over the Agricultural Value Chain Financing (AVCF) Project to the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) in a ceremony on 15 February 2024 at the BSP head office in Manila.

With this, the Department of Agriculture’s ACPC will spearhead capacity building for financial institutions under a dedicated AVCF program and provide initial funding for relending to qualified borrowers in the value chain.

AVCF, an information-based lending methodology, enables banks to identify and mitigate credit risks in lending to agriculture, in general, and to small farmers and fisherfolk, in particular. The AVCF approach helps banks to determine acceptable collateral substitutes and focus less on the use of hard collateral.^[1]

The ceremony also formalized the transition of the AVCF project to its next phase under the ACPC helm, following the AVCF Pilot Project.

The AVCF Pilot Project was launched in September 2019 in line with an earlier ADB study which highlighted the need to improve the capacity of both banks and target borrowers to undertake AVCF.

This initiative follows BSP Circular No. 908 issued in 2016 to promote AVCF as a sustainable financing approach supportive of financial inclusion.

The pilot project consisted of trainings, mentoring, and field visits for six participating banks, with output documented in the AVCF Toolkit^[2] and Case Studies.

^[1] Ibid

^[2] Financial Inclusion Framework Strengthening: Implementing Agricultural Value Chain Financing (AVCF) – Guide and Toolkit for Banks (adb.org)