IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, together with the Mastercard Foundation, launched on October 4th the Digital Financial Services for Agriculture Handbook to support the expansion of financial inclusion to smallholder farmers and agricultural value chain actors in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Financial inclusion has expanded dramatically in the region over the past 10 years due to the rapid evolution of mobile money and agent banking. But access to formal financial services remains limited in rural areas and in the agricultural sector. Although agriculture contributes to about 18 percent of GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa, only an estimated one percent of bank lending in the region is allocated to the agricultural sector.
Riadh Naouar, IFC Manager for Financial Institutions Group Advisory in Sub-Saharan Africa, said:
“This handbook will help financial services providers better understand smallholder farmers and other actors in the agricultural value chains, and how to develop and launch sustainable financial services for them. Digital services can help farmers better access inputs, weather updates, pricing information, and markets.”
This is the fourth handbook on how to develop digital financial services published by the Partnership for Financial Inclusion, a $37.4 million joint initiative of IFC and the Mastercard Foundation to expand microfinance and advance digital financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Original source: IFC World Bank Group
Published on 4 October 2018
