In this issue, we introduce you to some of the agro-supply businesses in Africa that you should keep an eye on.
What is it?
Agro Supply is an unprecedented application of the age-old lay-away model as an investment service for Ugandan smallholder farmers without bank accounts.
The founder and CEO is Ogwal Joseph.
For company information, see below!
Agro Supply: https://agrosupplyltd.com/
Reference: https://pctechmag.com/2019/01/four-ugandan-entrepreneurs-selected-for-the-2019-acumen-fellow-program/joseph-ogwal/
This article explains how Agro Supply works and why it works.
Farmers’ challenges
If a farmer had 200$, what would he do with it?
They would use it for agricultural inputs, right?
But after 3 or 4 months, they have no more money to spend on agricultural inputs.
Solution.
This is where Agro Supply makes it possible, simply put, to finance agricultural technology through a pre-paid system.
The agricultural inputs are planned in advance for the season and let the farmers start with small payments.
This way, when the farming season arrives, they can use the money they have set aside to make agricultural inputs.
In other words, we finance agricultural technology through mobile micro-savings.
Agro Supply has developed a layaway system that uses USSD codes (dial number: 28443#), scratch cards and mobile money to enable farmers to save for agricultural inputs.
Until the launch of this savings tool for smallholder farmers The layaway model is as follows
Purchasing an Agro Supply scratch card from an Agro Supply distributor for as little as $1, or
Digital payments using mobile money, allowing them to save small amounts of cash at any time.
To do this, farmers simply enter the code into their own mobile phone or the mobile phone of an Agro Supply agent and register the amount invested in their account. Once payment is received, seeds and fertilisers are delivered.
Farmers can also save money to buy other inputs, such as organic fertilisers or solar irrigation systems.
Through its field agents, Agro Supply provides on-site training to registered farmers before the planting season.
They have also designed a digital extension training system that sends agronomy messages directly to farmers’ mobile phones and are developing an automated voice response (IVR) system.
Mastercard estimates that of the more than USD 200 billion needed for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South and South-East Asia, only USD 50 billion is currently financed by informal and formal financial institutions.
You can see that the necessary funds are not being fully utilised.
This is where Agro Supply comes in, where farmers invest in their own farms to create long-term sustainable agriculture.
Empowering farmers to invest in their own farms can be a path out of poverty, an environmentally friendly path towards greater food security and a way to support the women farmers who sustain African agriculture.
Reference: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ogwal-joseph-047535117/?originalSubdomain=ug