Niraj H. Shah is the Program Manager of the Private Sector Window (PrSW) of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a US$390 million multi-donor trust fund supported by the Governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, UK and USA, and managed by IFC as a Blended Finance program. The PrSW co-invests alongside IFC, directly or indirectly, in agribusiness and agrifinance projects impacting smallholders in the agriculture value chain. As of December 2019, the GAFSP PrSW had supported 75 investment projects in 27 countries for an investment amount of US$362 million, and 78 advisory projects in 32 countries for US$32 million. Niraj is also the IFC global lead for Blended Finance in the Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services sectors, which includes the GAFSP PrSW.
Between 2007 and 2013, Niraj was the IFC Sector Lead for Agribusiness and TRP (Tourism, Retail and Property) for South Asia, based in India and later for the Caribbean, based in the Dominican Republic. Niraj joined IFC from Edelweiss Capital, a full-service Indian investment bank, where he was the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions. Prior to that, he worked at Ernst & Young, Lazard India and ICICI Bank. Over the past 25 years, Niraj has worked in different areas including blended finance, project finance, management consulting, distressed debt, private equity and investment banking. His industry experience spans diverse sectors including agribusiness, agrifinance, hospitality, real estate, media & telecom and manufacturing. He is a Cost Accountant and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.