The Government of Guinea and the World Bank Group launched the Guinea AgriConnect Compact in Conakry on April 30, 2026. According to the World Bank, the integrated strategic framework is meant to speed up the sustainable transformation of the West African country's agrifood systems, strengthen food and nutrition security, create decent jobs and make agriculture a driver of inclusive growth and industrialisation. The Guinean news site Guineematin reported that the programme runs from 2026 to 2031.
The launch and how the compact is built
Guineematin reported that the ceremony was chaired by Mariama Ciré Sylla, Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget, standing in for the Minister of Agriculture, who was unable to attend, together with Félix Lamah, Minister of Livestock, and technical and financial partners.
The compact is aligned with the 2040 Simandou Agenda, whose first pillar names agriculture and livestock as key drivers of economic diversification, export development and job creation. Simandou is a mountain range about 110 km long in south-eastern Guinea that holds a large iron ore deposit. The compact brings the Government together with the World Bank Group's three arms, the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), alongside technical and financial partners, the private sector and producer organisations. It aligns three priorities: rural infrastructure, public reforms and investments, and the mobilisation of private finance.
Priority crops and livestock
Rice and poultry come first, chosen to strengthen food security and reduce dependence on imports. Maize and soybeans are supported as strategic inputs, chiefly for animal feed. Fonio and mangoes are the diversification and export chains the compact also backs.
Fonio is a small-grained West African cereal, a grass of the genus Digitaria, that is gluten-free and copes well with drought. It is especially important in Guinea's Fouta Djallon highlands, and Guinea accounted for more than 75% of world fonio production in 2019, according to FAO-based figures.
At the launch, Livestock Minister Félix Lamah said poultry was the priority for his sector, noting that Guinea was importing about 10,000 tonnes of frozen chicken. The aim, he said, was for Guinea to become self-sufficient in poultry meat, milk and table eggs within five years to meet the needs of its more than 17 million people. He named three challenges: a regulatory and legal framework that attracts private investment, the infrastructure needed to bring quality products to market, and financing.
Targets for 2030 and the money behind them
According to the World Bank, by 2030 the compact aims to contribute to:
- a significant improvement in food and nutrition security
- hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs in agricultural and agrifood value chains, particularly for young people and women
- less dependence on imported staples, especially rice and poultry products
- the development of the export potential of fonio and mangoes
Minister Sylla said the programme would include land reforms to secure access to farmland, easier certification of farm products for export, the rehabilitation of rural roads and facilities to store and process produce, along with training, finance and digital tools for smallholders.
"AgriConnect enables a better coordination of the World Bank Group's instruments, IDA, IFC and MIGA, to support Guinea in a profound transformation of its agriculture," said Issa Mare Diaw, World Bank Group Resident Representative for Guinea. At the ceremony he said that a $20 million financing agreement to support local production had been signed with a company in March, and that a second, larger phase of World Bank financing would be launched in the coming weeks.
"With the AgriConnect Compact, Guinea is taking a decisive step forward in positioning agriculture as a central pillar of economic transformation, directly linked to the opportunities offered by the Simandou corridor," Minister of Agriculture Aminata Kaba said in the World Bank statement.
AgriConnect is a World Bank Group initiative to help 300 million smallholder farmers around the world get more value from their crops and raise their incomes by 2030. It is supported by partners including the African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Inter-American Development Bank, Bayer and Google.
Photo: Abdoulrahamane 99MDS Barry / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: World Bank, Guineematin, Wikipedia (Fonio, Simandou)
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