“We may have a farm but often we do not have money for farming” says Susan Gakii, a farmer who grows sorghum, beans and maize in central Kenya. As with many of the 78 million smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, irregular cash flows meant that Susan, now an Agri-wallet customer, was often unable to access the seeds, fertilizer and agro-chemicals she needed to optimize the productivity of her farm and generate the income to provide for her family.
Agri-wallet, an innovative agriculture fintech operating in Kenya, is committed to changing this. Founded in 2017 and winner of multiple awards, including the World Bank’s Disruptive Agricultural Technology Award, Agri-wallet provides supply chain finance to ensure that all actors in the value chain – including farmers, buyers and suppliers – can access the resources they need to grow and scale. And it aims to solve this challenge in a way that is affordable for its customers and profitable for its investors – an often difficult balance to strike when it comes to smallholder and agricultural finance.
In the autumn of 2019, as Agri-wallet prepared to expand its operations, the team engaged the Mastercard Foundation Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab (the Lab) and IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) to conduct a...
