Sweeter Prospects for Cocoa Farmers
Cocoa is one of the world’s most prized foods, but the smallholder farmers in Cote d’Ivoire who produce it live in extreme poverty. Formal land ownership can improve their financial outlook.
The Power of Community-Based Organizations to Mobilize Farmers’ Savings
A Scale2Save project in Cote d’Ivoire shares what they’ve learned working with farmer cooperatives as financial agents.
How To Keep the Human Touch While Digitizing Agricultural Value Chains
Hedwig Siewertsen of AGRA discusses the different digital solutions for financing agricultural value chains that were shared at African Microfinance Week this year.
Do Flexible Loans Improve Access to Agricultural Credit?
Results from a recent survey in Kenya question the impact of flexible loan terms on how much credit smallholder farmers take up. But the issue may be that loans were still not flexible enough.
Speaking the Common Language of the SDGs
Jean-Marc Debricon of Alterfin discusses impact investing in rural Africa as the region prepares for African Microfinance Week. Held in Burkina Faso from 21 to 25 October 2019, this major regional conference provides a unified African platform for discussion of microfinance issues.
Why Smallholder Finance Isn’t Getting the Investment It Needs
By overlooking investment opportunities in smallholder finance in favor of serving less risky client segments that are easier to reach, investors are missing out on one of the greatest impact opportunities in financial inclusion today. What can financial service providers and investors do about it?
Go Big by Going Small: Serving the Needs of Smallholder Farmers
Agriculture has not been an easy nut to crack for the microfinance industry. While small family farms are the basis of agricultural production in developing countries, this sector faces many challenges, especially funding. Funders can help to find better pathways to reach small farmers.
Diving Into Data on Smallholder Families
Until now, reliable data on the financial lives of smallholder families has been scarce. Three new tools from CGAP, Insight2Impact, MIX and One Acre Fund shed light on this massive untapped market for financial services.
Why Sistema.bio Decided to Forego MFI Partnerships
After considering partnering with MFIs for a new asset-based financing program, the biogas system producer realized they'd be better off creating their own program. Here they share their experiences and lessons learned.
Four Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Agricultural Financing
How can we expand financial services to the farms to feed the world’s growing population? Learn more at African Microfinance Week 2017, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 9 to 13 Oct 2017.