FINAS 2026 opening keynote address

Africa’s financial system reaches farmers for almost everything except the harvest. That was the argument at the heart of the opening keynote at FINAS 2026, delivered by FSD Kenya CEO Rashmi Pillai. The conference, convened by Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the FINAS Secretariat, runs under the theme “towards a sustainable financial architecture for Africa’s food systems.” Rashmi’s keynote was built around the case study of Mwende, a farmer from Makueni who grows food for households in Machakos, Nairobi and Mombasa. Mwende can borrow within minutes for a phone or school fees, but struggles to find finance for a drip line, certified seed or storage that would let her hold onions until prices recover. The problem isn’t a lack of finance so much as finance that doesn’t fit how farming works.