Michael Kortenbusch is a Senior MSME Lending Expert, Team Leader, and the Managing Director of Business & Finance Consulting (BFC). With 30 years of overall professional experience, of which 24 years in banking and development finance, and 16 years in agriculture lending, he has led, supervised and provided expertise in over 55 projects implemented by BFC, primarily focused on MSME finance and access to finance, agrilending, rural & value chain finance, due diligence, institutional development, operational efficiency, turnaround management, and strategy & business development.  In the last 7 years, Michael has provided expertise in 8 long-term projects in MSME finance & agrifinance in Armenia (KfW), Azerbaijan (EBRD), Georgia (SDC), Kyrgyzstan (KfW), Nepal (KfW) and Serbia (KfW), being involved in improvement of credit technologies, procedures, strategies and tools for MSME & agrilending, capacity building to FIs for sustainable extension of loans, and improving access to finance (specifically for agribusinesses, MSMEs, farmers, rural enterprises, etc.). Michael holds a Master Degree in Slavic Languages. He is native in German and fluent in English and Russian.  In this episode Michael discusses the drivers of and outlook for Agricultural Value Chain Finance.  Michael can be reached on LinkedIn or on via BFC's website (https://bfconsulting.com/)  This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies.  FDDA also works with financial inclusive institutions to improve their corporate governance and reporting, besides helping asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer.  You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at [email protected].