Evaluation of the Sida-USAID/DCA Guarantee to Zanaco

The subject of this evaluation is the Portfolio Loan Guarantee provided to The Zambian National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) by USAIDand Sida jointly. This evaluation assesses the performance of the guarantee during the period 2013–2017. The aim of the guaranteewas to open up access to finance for small and medium scale farmers that would not otherwise have access to credit.The overarching objective of the evaluation was to determine to what extent this guarantee has contributed to: changes in the bank’sloan appraisal methodology, assessment of risk, capacity to interact effectively with rural clients, etc. and; Systemic change in thefinancial market as it pertains to the banking sector’s risk assessment of agricultural lending, including lending to female farmersand to more remote geographic areas.The report finds that there is limited evidence from the study that this guarantee has significantly altered this Bank’s behaviour or thebanking sector’s risk assessment regarding agricultural lending. However, this guarantee programme has provided Zanaco with anentry into the Emergent Farmer sector which they will have learnt from.