Africa's Portfolio Arranger for Blended Finance
Bridging Trust. Unlocking Capital.
Daraja Guarantee is Africa's portfolio arranger for blended finance — a guarantee administrator, not a bank and not a direct lender. We originate, standardize, guarantee, and distribute African productive-sector loan portfolios to international institutional capital, structuring credit enhancement facilities on behalf of development finance partners so licensed financial institutions can lend to underserved SMEs with calibrated risk sharing and institutional-grade oversight.
Institution type
Guarantee administrator
Not a direct lender
Partner-MFI model
Operational domicile
Mauritius
Year 1 pilot
Kenya · Tanzania · Liberia
The problem
The $330B African SME financing gap
African SMEs cannot access affordable credit because banks demand collateral they don't have. MFIs want to lend but lack the capital buffers to absorb risk at scale. Development capital sits in large DFI facilities rather than reaching the 40M+ underserved enterprises who need $5K–$500K loans.
The missing link is a trusted, technology-native guarantee layer that sits between DFIs and MFIs — absorbing and redistributing first-loss risk so that both sides can operate at scale.
Our role
Guarantee administration, not direct lending
Daraja Guarantee does not lend directly. We structure, issue, and administer guarantee facilities on behalf of DFI funders — giving MFI partners the risk coverage they need to extend credit at lower rates to eligible borrowers.
Every guarantee facility, drawdown, claim, and recovery is tracked in an immutable, insert-only audit log — auditable by DFI counterparties in real time through a dedicated funder portal.
Our model
A capital-mobilization engine, not a risk-mitigation tool
Bilateral guarantee funds provide one-off risk sharing to individual banks, leaving the risk stranded on that bank's balance sheet. Daraja uses its guarantee as the foundational layer to package, slice, and distribute structured loan portfolios directly to DFIs, pension funds, insurance companies, and impact investors.
Model 1: FLDG Guarantee
Direct First-Loss Default Guarantee coverage to MFI partner loan portfolios, enabling affordable credit to agricultural, asset-finance, and SME borrowers across Tanzania and Liberia. This proves the underwriting model and builds the portfolio track record that makes Model 2 credible.
Model 2: Portfolio Arranger
Standardized portfolio packaging — aggregating loans from multiple originating lenders into investable portfolios with digital Daraja Guarantee Certificates, distributed to institutional investors. Where eligible, Export Credit Agency cover is layered alongside the FLDG.
How we work
Three parties. One platform.
DFIs & Co-Funders
Structured, auditable deployment of blended capital through first-loss and mezzanine guarantee facilities. Real-time portfolio dashboards and automated funder reporting with immutable data snapshots.
MFI Partners
First-loss guarantee coverage that reduces effective risk below partner lending thresholds. PAR monitoring, covenant alerts, partner ledger, and monthly statements — all managed through the platform.
SME Borrowers
Access to guaranteed credit across SME, agricultural, and asset finance segments. Digital application portal with AML screening, business registry verification, and transparent rate disclosure.
Find your path
Dedicated guidance for each stakeholder we serve.
DFIs & investors
Deploy blended capital with full audit trail and real-time portfolio visibility.
Explore co-investment →Financial institutions
First-loss guarantee coverage, partner ledger, and claims workflow on one platform.
Partner with us →SMEs & borrowers
Access guaranteed credit through accredited partners — eligibility, process, and support.
How to apply →Government
Financial inclusion, employment, and supervisory cooperation aligned to national policy.
Policy engagement →Built for regulated financial markets
Every design decision on the Daraja Guarantee platform reflects DFI audit requirements — not as a compliance afterthought, but as the core architecture.
Insert-only audit log
Every financial mutation is logged with before/after state. No record can be deleted or amended.
Segregation of duties
Loan originators cannot approve guarantee claims on their own loans. Enforced at the application layer.
9-role access control
Role-scoped data isolation at the database layer. Each role sees only the data their position requires.
Regulatory exports
IC-approved export packages for central bank submission, with full approval chain logged.
Ready to explore a partnership?