Mastercard
and the Ecobank Group have partnered to connect millions of smallholder farmers
in Sub-Saharan Africa to Mastercard’s Farm Pass – a digital platform that makes
it safer and easier for farmers to sell their produce at a fair price.
Under the
partnership, Ecobank will extend the reach and impact of the Mastercard Farm
Pass platform leveraging its Pan-African network of 33 countries. Many
smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa face several challenges.
These include
limited access to markets, working capital to finance activities or secure
quality inputs, and relevant financial tools to pay and get paid efficiently.
This has led
to insecurity, inefficiencies, and a waste of resources and food, preventing
farmers from running sustainable businesses.
A statement
said Farm Pass brings together various agri-sector stakeholders from the supply
and demand sides, in one agricultural marketplace, amplifying the collective
positive impact on farming communities.
Smallholder
farmers can sell their produce at a better price, access quality inputs and
farming information, get paid and pay digitally and develop a financial profile
that can unlock financing opportunities for working capital and inputs.
According to
McKinsey and Company, more than 60% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa are
smallholder farmers, with the agricultural sector contributing an estimated 23%
of the continent’s GDP. Yet only 3% of the sector receives banking credit,
limiting the farmers’ capacity to grow their business or mitigate poor harvest
losses.
By
integrating their businesses with payment systems, Farm Pass enables
smallholder farmers to build a digital transaction record that can facilitate
formal credit or other financial services from banks and other financial
institutions.
“Food
security is a critical and urgent need in these times. We must therefore rise
to the task by creating growth opportunities across the agriculture value chain
in Africa. Our partnership with Mastercard has come at the right time to
accelerate smallholder farmers’ access to urgently needed financial services,
which are vital to realising Africa’s full agricultural potential. It will also
help deliver value across the farming and agricultural value chain to make
farming in Africa more profitable, competitive, and resilient, thus
contributing to the economic growth of the continent,” said Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of
Ecobank Group.
“When we
empower people, we can power economies and support economic growth that is
truly inclusive. Mastercard Farm Pass contributes to this by offering a digital
platform that makes it easier for smallholder farmers to move from subsistence
to commercial farming. This, in turn, will stimulate agricultural growth,
increase competitiveness, and improve food security in Africa. Through close
collaborations with important partners like Ecobank, we can create even more
impact, putting the digital economy to work for everyone, everywhere,” said
Michael Froman, Vice Chairman and President, Strategic Growth at
Mastercard.
“The
Mastercard Farm Pass collaboration with Ecobank Group fits well with the intent
of the African Development Banks’s recently approved Africa Emergency Food
Production Facility (AEFPF), which is to support countries to boost production
and productivity on the continent for key staples. One of the key activities of
AEFPF is to connect farmers through e-wallet systems, i.e. digitizing the
procurement of agro inputs and at the same time allowing for reaching farmers
in a transparent manner, which will truly revolutionize the transformation of
agriculture,” said Solomon Quaynor, Vice President for Private Sector,
Infrastructure and Industrialization, African Development Bank Group.
Since its
launch in 2015, Mastercard Farm Pass has reached nearly one million smallholder
farmers in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and India, enabling them to command 25%-50%
higher prices and increase harvest productivity. Farm Pass is part of
Mastercard’s strategy to connect underserved communities to essential services
through Community Pass, a shared interoperable digital platform that supports
the company’s commitment to connect one billion people and 50 million small and
micro businesses to the digital economy by 2025.
Source:Classfmonline