According to McKinsey and Company, more than 60 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is smallholders farmer while 23 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP comes from Agriculture. However, this sector faces a lot of challenges, especially for many smallholder farmers.
The challenges range from limited access to markets, working capital, and financial tools to initiate transactions. This has led to insecurity, inefficiencies, and a waste of resources and food, preventing farmers from running sustainable businesses.
In a bid to help curb some of these challenges, Mastercard and 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.
The partnership will see Ecobank extend the reach and impact of the Mastercard Farm Pass platform leveraging its Pan-African network of 33 countries.
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.
Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of Ecobank Group said, “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.”
Speaking on the impact the partnership will have on Africa, Michael Froman, Vice Chairman and President, Strategic Growth at Mastercard said, “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.”
“The Mastercard Farm Pass collaboration with Ecobank Group fits well with the intent of the African Development Banks’ 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,” added Solomon Quaynor, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, African Development Bank Group.
Mastercard Farm Pass was launched in 2015 and has reached almost one million smallholder farmers in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and India, enabling them to command 25%-50% higher prices and increase harvest productivity.
