I have two degrees – one in accounting, one in procurement. I tell you this because I want to be clear about something: when I walk into a financial institution, I understand what I am talking about. I understand balance sheets. I understand repayment schedules. I understand risk.
And yet I have sat across a desk from a financial expert and watched him look at fifteen acres of avocado trees, years of work, a growing operation, and tell me he could not evaluate it. Not because the value was not there. Because it did not match his form.
I started farming avocados when I was a student. I noticed that prices in the markets around Kirehe kept rising and decided to look into it. I spoke to my parents. They backed me with an initial investment. I leased five acres from local farmers and started planting, adding seasonal crops to cover running costs while I waited for the trees to mature.
The first harvest did not return what my family had put in. I had not been able to afford enough fertilizer. I did not stop.
“I applied for the Youth Connect Award and received an investment in 2022, which helped me expand onto more land. In 2025, I was introduced to ES Partners and received patient capital. The Rugori Investment Network also provided a loan, which I used on fertilizer and on building a post-harvest route to market. I now farm 15 acres.”
I am not describing this to impress anyone. I am describing it because I want you to understand what a lender would be looking at if they assessed my business honestly. Years of investment in land I do not own. Trees that take time to produce but that, once established, produce consistently. A track record of receiving capital and using it as described. Evidence of a market.
When a financial institution assigned an expert to evaluate my assets, he was perplexed. My business has no fixed assets, no machinery registered in my name and I lease the land. He had no framework for what I had built. I challenged him to look at the trees. He had no policy to do that.
I am not an unusual case. Most young agricultural farmers in Rwanda are working on leased land with seasonal cash flows and no fixed assets in the traditional sense. The collateral problem I am describing is not mine alone. It is structural.
So let me be specific about what I am asking for.
I am asking financial institutions to develop ways to evaluate standing crops and leasehold investments as part of a credit assessment. The trees I have planted represent years of capital and labour. They produce income. That should be readable to a lender.
I am asking for transaction history to count. I have borrowed and used the funds as agreed. That record exists. A commercial bank should be able to see it and use it.
I am asking for loan timelines that reflect how agriculture actually works. Avocado trees do not produce in the first year. A repayment schedule that does not account for that is not designed for a farming business. Grace periods and seasonal repayment terms should not be exceptional for agricultural lending.
I am asking for the people working at branch level to understand agricultural businesses. Policy commitments made in rooms like the one I spoke in on 19 May only reach farmers like me if the credit officer at the counter understands what they are looking at. That requires training and clear guidance from the top.
And I am asking to be involved when financial products for young farmers are being designed. I know what my business needs. That knowledge should be in the room from the beginning, not consulted after the product has already been built.
At the dialogue, I heard about work that is underway. Alternative data infrastructure that could let a bank see my mobile money history, my loan repayment record, my agricultural activity. Digital lending platforms that can disburse within three days. Collateral-free products for women borrowers. Patient capital providers building the credit histories that commercial banks can eventually use. I believe these things are moving.
What I am asking is that they move in a way that actually reaches a farmer in Kirehe with fifteen acres of leased land and no title deed. If that happens, more young farmers will be able to turn patient investment, leased land, and growing markets into businesses that can expand production, create work, and strengthen agricultural value chains.
I will be at the Young Africa Works Summit on 29 June. I will bring my track record and the same questions I brought to the dialogue. I want to expand my farming operation. I want to take on more land and work with more farmers. What I need is a financing system that can assess it for what it is. My growth is not only about expanding my own farm. It is also about creating more reliable opportunities for the farmers I work with and those I hope to bring into the business.
Bonnette Ishimwe is an avocado farmer based in Kirehe District, Rwanda
