By Onome Amuge
Agricultural technology company, ThriveAgric, in collaboration with global nonprofit organisation, Heifer International, has launched the company’s AYuTe (Agriculture, Youth and Technology) Project, aimed at empowering 125,000 smallholder farmers with financial inclusion access.
The AYuTe Project further reiterates the company’s mission to build the largest network of profitable farmers across Africa, accelerating towards its goal of building a continent that feeds itself.
Over the next twelve months, ThriveAgric and its technical partners will facilitate the opening of bank accounts for 125,000 smallholder farmers across eight northern states including Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi, giving them access to debit cards and other various financial services.
Business A.M learnt that the project is in fulfillment of ThriveAgric’s $1m grant prize as the West African winners of the annual AYuTe Africa Challenge, an initiative of Heifer International.
In addition to employing over 200 young people to execute this project, ThriveAgric said it will also be providing 1,000 Point of Sale (POS) devices to selected Nigerian youths to boost and provide additional income to their families.
ThriveAgric’s AYuTe Project aims to empower smallholder farmers and connect them to the formal financial economy, which can provide access to finance, credit, and other digital services.
The project is intended to introduce farmers to the formal economy and position them for better livelihoods in the long term. Ayodeji Arikawe, co-founder of ThriveAgric, explained that empowering smallholder farmers has always been a key objective for the company.
“We are excited about this initiative we’re undertaking with Heifer International through the AYuTe Africa Challenge, and for the long term impact of this strategic partnership with VISA towards the creation of job opportunities, financial and social inclusion. Our unwavering commitment to positively impact smallholder farmers and their immediate communities across Africa will become even more evident through this project, as we power towards our goal of developing the largest network of profitable farmers in Africa,” Arikawe said.
Access to funding has been identified as one of the biggest challenges confronting smallholder farmers in Africa. According to WillAgri, a blog dedicated to agriculture,only 10 per cent of farmers have access to credit in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa.
To this end, ThriveAgric said it would facilitate account opening, distribution of bank cards and set up POS operators in the rural northern communities,while increasing access to formal financial services through digital tools thereby driving financial inclusion, a key promoter of access to finance and markets for more smallholder farmers.
Key partnerships with companies like Visa to reach the most financially excluded groups, a lot of whom are smallholder farmers, demonstrates how ThriveAgric will be leveraging strategic partnerships to attain the company’s ambition of providing $500 million in credit to 10 million smallholder farmers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya by 2027.
Ayodeji Alabi, fintech lead at Visa Inc. West Africa, commended ThriveAgric for its innovative approach to onboarding over 125,000 farmers on the Financial Inclusion drive in Nigeria. He affirmed Visa’s support for ThriveAgric and expressed confidence in the company’s ability to provide payment solutions and bank the underserved.
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