Mastercard has partnered with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to expand the Mastercard Farmers Network (MFN) marketplace to more farmers, buyers and agents in the East African region.

The MFN platform has already gone live in Uganda, Tanzania, and India, with more than 250,000 farmers on the platform currently.

Under this partnership, key partners, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), are providing support to further roll out the MFN platform across Uganda making transacting much safer and simpler for many more stakeholders in the agricultural value chain – the farmer, the buyer and the agent.

The MFN is an award-winning, innovative solution that helps to connect small-scale farmers with potential buyers, integrates their businesses with payment systems, and enables them to build a digital transaction record that can be used to access formal credit from banks and other financial institutions.  Without this technology, many smallholder farmers struggle to access the market for their goods and financial tools that would enable them to grow their businesses and improve their livelihoods.

MFN was developed by the Mastercard Lab for Financial Inclusion, one of nine Labs, which serves Mastercard’s Strategic Growth efforts by developing ground-breaking solutions that will impact millions of people through helping them manage risk better, financially plan for the future and lead empowered lives.

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The announcement was made at the MFN Partner Summit in Kampala that showcased unique public-private partnerships (PPP) that will positively impact smallholder farmers and empower the agriculture value chain in Uganda and across the continent through technology.

 “Mastercard is a trusted network that builds ecosystems through partnerships, which allow us to connect people to, and help them to benefit from, the digital economy. Our partnership with CIAT and with USADF will significantly increase our reach to smallholder farmers and the rest of the agricultural ecosystem, allowing more people enjoy the benefits of a digital economy and empowering them to grow their businesses,” said Raghav Prasad, Division President Sub-Saharan Africa, Mastercard.

The successful roll out of these partnerships in Uganda will bring us closer to our ambition of expanding access to the Mastercard Farmers Network to millions of farmers in Africa and the rest of the world and welcoming them to the financial ecosystem,”

CIAT is working with Mastercard to scale up the MFN platform to support farmers in the bean value chain. Through this partnership, CIAT aims to grow their impact from over 200,000 farmers in East Africa, to over one million farmers in their different African countries of operations by 2020

Commenting on the partnership, Dr Debisi Araba, Regional Director for Africa, CIAT said, “We are delighted today to see the realization of the digital platform dream that connects smallholder farmers, aggregators, processors and banks in East Africa. Smallholder farmers can now enjoy increased profits courtesy of the reduced transaction costs (financial and time wise) and have peace of mind from the secured platform. We are hopeful that women, through the e-payment services, will now have more access and control of their financial resources ultimately transforming the health, nutrition and economic prosperity of their homes and by extension their communities”.

He went on to add that as an organization, CIAT remains committed to partnerships with other like-minded stakeholders to make farming systems more competitive, profitable, and resilient through smarter, more sustainable natural resource management.

USADF has started using MFN in Uganda to help reach underserved communities across all value-chains in the agricultural sector, with a target of adding 20,000 farmers by the end of 2019 and an ambition of growing this to 1 million farmers by end of 2020. This will be achieved by increasing farmer linkages to markets and formal financial services and growing the usage of MFN to millions of smallholder farmers across Africa.

In partnership with Mastercard, USADF is also providing participating farmers with a host of other value-added services, including logistics and transportation, best agronomic practices, as well as access to warehousing facilities. This will be delivered through their implementing partner, the Uganda Development Trust (UDET).

USADF President and Chief Executive Officer, C.D. Glin, commented on the catalytic impact of this partnership model. “Digitizing farmer and market information will jump start efficiency in ways that will transform farmer livelihoods by establishing critical connecting points based on innovations in the agricultural value chain. Ultimately, the use of Mastercard’s technology will help smallholder farmers establish a financial footprint important to improve inclusivity that is vital to their future,”

John Oroko Co-founder Selina Wamucii Limited. Photo courtesy.

A Kenyan social entrepreneur whose company is connecting smallholder farmers across Africa into global supply chains has won the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation Award for Sustainable Development.

John Oroko, the co-founder of Selina Wamucii, received the recognition for the work his innovative company is doing in integrating smallholder farmers, pastoralists and fishing communities into global supply chains.

The award was presented by the Commonwealth Secretary-General the RT Hon Patricia Scotland and the Vice-President of Seychelles Vincent Meriton in the Seychellois Island of Mahe.

The award ceremony event was held during the opening day of the Commonwealth Africa Innovation Ecosystem Workshop.

Speaking during the award ceremony, John Oroko said that the award would go a long way in building the necessary momentum for transforming agricultural value chains across Africa.

“As challenging as our innovation journey has been, this award and recognition gives us much appreciated motivation to continue being at the forefront of agricultural innovation across Africa. I believe we have the best opportunity to transform Africa’s agricultural value chains while passing the benefits of an efficient chain to producer communities across the continent,” John said.

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Facing first-hand the realities that rural farmers grapple with in accessing markets and earning decent household incomes, John, who was brought up in a smallholder farming family, made a resolve to transform farmers’ earnings and found an ally in technology.

Upon graduating and after a short stint at employment, John quit to start Selina Wamucii, a company  named after his mother’s first name and his co-founder mother’s middle name as a way of honouring them for their hard work as smallholder farmers which saw them raise their families from their farm’s proceeds.

 “The story of our mothers as rural smallholder farmers is the story of tens of thousands more across the country and this inspired me to start Selina Wamucii. I believe that every human being who works hard deserves to have access to opportunities that enable them to live a life of dignity.  Smallholders are among the hardest working people on the planet, yet remain a majority of the world’s poorest.  It matters to me because I believe we have the best opportunity to transform Africa’s agricultural value chains while passing the benefits of an efficient chain to producer communities across the continent,” John said.

John whose philosophy is driving initiatives that create lasting impact among communities loves spending time working to address society’s most pressing problems.

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Since co-founding the company in June 2015 he has managed to enlist over 7,000 farmers across the country who grow high value food among them fruits, vegetables, fish, seafood, spices and other agro commodities which find their way across markets in Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

To become part of the network, farmers sign up to join Selina through their mobile phones via USSD.

A section of Selina Wamucii staff. Photo courtesy.

The system captures information relating to the geographical locations of smallholder farmers, what they are producing, the various stages of progress throughout the season, harvest timelines and projections and actual volumes at harvest.

This information makes it easy to estimate expected volumes in a year for different produce, which then enables buyers around the world to plan in advance.

It also streamlines the sourcing process, making it faster and less expensive with a digitized value chain. Buyers, on the other hand, specify what they want and are guaranteed consistent quality, fair price and volumes. The company has improved farmers ability to meet global market standards such as organic and good agricultural practices.

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The company is now looking at having the services offered in local languages as well for easier communication with farmers.

The success of the Kenyan operation has inspired a regional scale with Selina Wamucii having conducted soft launches and featured smallholder produce from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique.

John now has his eyes trained on scaling to the rest of Africa with a target of being in every African country across East, Southern, Central and North Africa.

The awards seek to showcase impactful innovations and forward-looking solutions that help countries advance the Commonwealth Charter values.

This comes after earlier this year Selina Wamucii was recognized by the London Stock Exchange Group which named it as a company to inspire Africa in its annual profile of Africa’s most dynamic growth businesses.