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mehdibella

AgroCenta : empowering smallholder farmers in Africa through technology and innovations - 0 views

  •  AgroCenta’s main competitors are Esoko (www.esoko.com), FarmerLine (www.farmerline.co) and Farm Radio (www.farmradio.org). These 3 competitors are “information-based” only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
    • aminej
       
      Some of the main competitors of AgroCenta's are Esoko , FarmerLine and Farm Radio. These 3 competitors are not really competitors because they do not provide the same services. These competitors are more "information-based" only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
  • AgroCenta came about when both co-founders identified the missing gap in the post harvest value chain, that is access to market for smallholder farmers. This gap gave way to exploitative buying from middlemen at the disadvantage to the smallholder farmer.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it shows the need that AgroCenta founders identified in Ghana, and thus reflects the company's reason for existing.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas. TrucKR : TruckR is the on-demand trucks & logistics aspect of AgroCenta where farmers can book for truck delivery services to cart their commodities from farms to markets just at a click of a button AgroInfo : Real time weather, market prices and extension advisory services are delivered via SMS and voice solutions to smallholder farmers using mobile technologies AgroPay : AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because one can identify the different products and services proposed by the firm.
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  • AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      I find this concept beneficial for all farmers because they will be able to have more direct access to larger markets. This way they could earn more and interact more.
  • Francis Obirikorang is the CEO/Co-founder of AgroCenta and Michael Ocansey is the CTO/Co-founder of AgroCenta. Francis and Michael are both ex-employees of Esoko, one of the largest market information platforms in Africa for smallholder farmers.
  • AgroCenta’s success factor is the elimination of the exploitative buying approach from the post harvest value chain, and putting the smallholder farmer at a pivotal position where they are able to sell their commodities to interested buyers fairly, generate enough income and become financially independent
    • mehdibella
       
      AgroCenta provides the "last mile" approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta's services include: -AgroTrade: platform connecting farmers to markets and promoting fair trade. -TrucKR: farmers can have access to transportation through this platform. - AgroInfo: platform that gives useful insights to farmers (weather, market prices) - AgroPay: a platform for financial inclusion, giving small and underbanked farmers the possibility to receive payments via their mobile.
  • AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • sawsanenn
       
      It is a good service because it is a good alternative for smallholders farmers to receive secure payments even without owning a bank account
  • AgroCenta provides the “last mile” approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
    • ghtazi
       
      AgroCenta gives smallholder farmers the "last mile" solution, moving a step further to help farmers sell competitively after only collecting demand knowledge from existing e-agricultural products on the market.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      It is a good service because it is a good way for farmers, even without getting a bank account, to get safe payments  This idea is great for all producers, so they will have direct access to bigger markets more effectively. They will gain more and engage with more.
nouhaila_zaki

AgroCenta - 0 views

  • AgroCenta's innovation focuses on the post harvest value chain. The suite of services within AgroCenta provides an end-to-end solution that ensures that it provides a win-win situation for the smallholder farmer and all active players in the value chain. If a smallholder farmer wants to know the latest market price of maize in the nearest market to enable him price competitively, he uses AgroInfo to request for information via SMS and Voice solutions. After the farmers has made a decision on how much to sell, the farmer's commodity information are uploaded onto the AgroTrade platform to connect him to buyers. When a trade agreement is reached between the farmer and a buyer, the farmer requests for TruckR, which is the truck delivery service component of AgroCenta, in real time using mobile phone. After the commodities are sold to the buyer, the farmer is paid via the AgroPay solution, which is the financial inclusion platform within AgroCenta
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      The important message to take from AgroCenta is that it gives win-win situations for all players. Smallholder farmers as well as those active in the value chain are taking advantage of this concept.
  • AgroCenta targets about 10 million smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa within the next 5 years to help them trade fairly. Over 90% of these smallholder farmers live under $1 and are not able to make enough money from sales proceed to take care of their families and re-invest a percentage of the money raised back into their farms.
    • mehdibella
       
      AgroCenta's value proposition lies in the advantage of providing the last mile market access for smallholder farmers in the staple food value chain through extensive collaboration with many partners who play an active role in the value chain.
  • AgroCenta's value proposition lies in the advantage of providing the last mile market access for smallholder farmers in the staple food value chain through extensive collaboration with many partners who play an active role in the value chain.
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  • AgroCenta provides an end-to-end solution for smallholder farmers in the post-harvest value chain from farm to market, leveraging on technology to create impact. AgroCenta's services include a market linkage platform (AgroTrade) linking farmers directly to buyers and removing exploitative buying, TruckR which is an on-demand trucks and logistics services (uber for trucks), AgroPay which is a financial inclusion plaform for the rural unbanked smallholder farmer.
  • AgroCenta has launched and piloted its Smallholder Farmer Integration Platform (AgroTrade) and has currently signed up over 7500 smallholder farmers in the staple food (rice, maize, soybean, sorghum and millet) value chain and connected them to a larger market (offtakers) to trade fairly. Also AgroCenta has recruited the services of 30 agents who work in close collaboration with smallholder farmer and farmer based organizations in 30 communities. Agents are responsible for signing up smallholder farmers onto the AgroCenta platform, uploading trade deals on behalf of farmers and collecting market price information from major markets across the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions in Ghana.
    • tahaemsd
       
      Agrocenta provides an end to end solution for smallholder farmers in the post-harvest value chain from farm to market
  • Competitive AdvantageAgroCenta's value proposition lies in the advantage of providing the last mile market access for smallholder farmers in the staple food value chain through extensive collaboration with many partners who play an active role in the value chain. Secondly the provision of an on-demand access to trucks (uber for trucks) enables commodities to be moved from farms to markets etc in real time, reducing food glut and ensuring food security.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it highlights the competitive advantage that Agrocenta enjoys. This advantage relies upon two components: 1- The company's partners who are crucial actors in the value chain, 2- The provision of on-demand trucks that allow for the smooth and swift movement of goods.
  • AgroCenta is currently operating in 3 out of 10 regions in Ghana. Our expansion plans are to rollout the platform in the remaining 7 regions of Ghana by end of 2018 and sign up a total of 70,000 smallholder farmers to connect them directly to a market to trade and eliminate exploitative buying. Also AgroCenta plans to scale into immediate countries in West Africa (Ivory Coast & Nigeria) by end of 2020. The long-term goal of AgroCenta is to create the first of its kind commodity exchange and aggregations platform in sub Saharan Africa.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta wants to expand in the rest of Ghana's region before scaling into immediate countries in West Africa and finally moving to a Pan-African approach.
ghtazi

AgroCenta - VC4A - 1 views

  • AgroCenta is an innovative online platform that empowers small holder farmers and farmer based organizations in rural farming communities access a wider online market outside their immediate locality to trade fairly and equitably. They can access technological tools and information that will inform them on best farming practices such weather information, market information and finally access to agro inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides directly from stakeholders.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      The engagement of farmers with AfroCenta is not only important to have wider access to larger markets, but also to have access to advanced tools and data in the agricultural industry.
  • AgroCenta is an innovative online platform that empowers small holder farmers and farmer based organizations in rural farming communities access a wider online market outside their immediate locality to trade fairly and equitably. They can access technological tools and information that will inform them on best farming practices such weather information, market information and finally access to agro inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides directly from stakeholders.
    • sawsanenn
       
      AgroCenta's mobile app provides two key services to smallholder farmers: access to markets (AgroTrade) and access to finance (AgroPay). On the AgroTrade platform, farmers can trade directly with small, medium, and large processing companies that need raw commodities for processing.
  • AgroCenta is an innovative online platform that empowers small holder farmers and farmer based organizations in rural farming communities access a wider online market outside their immediate locality to trade fairly and equitably. They can access technological tools and information that will inform them on best farming practices such weather information, market information and finally access to agro inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides directly from stakeholders.
    • ghtazi
       
      Agrocenta is an innovative platform that helps small farmers in rural communities access a wider online market in order to trade freely and equitably.
kenza_abdelhaq

AgroCenta CEO on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship in Ghana - 0 views

  • Does being an entrepreneur in Ghana – and in a developing economy in Africa – presents any ulterior challenges you had overcome?Being an entrepreneur in Africa and in emerging markets, in general, is quite difficult because of the lack of structure and supports put in place by the government. It requires a lot of courage and persistence to get the simplest things done. Any simple tech solution that you might want to build can end up being a very complex challenge because it relies on services that do not exist or don’t work properly. Access to funding also remains a big problem for many entrepreneurs who will need money to test, pilot and scale a platform or a solution. Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects the challenges faced by AgroCenta in Ghana, i.e. corruption, lack of financing, lack of proper infrastructure, lack of government help, among other things.
  • Our business model is simple, we are a B2B business that generates commission fees on trade volumes from the businesses we work with.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is extremely important because it clearly states the business model of the company.
  • we are definitely improving the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade. Many smallholder farmers are paid less than $1 a day and our objective is to increase it to $4 a day by 2020.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      AgroCenta is an extremely important concept because it is helping to increase farmers' salaries. Going from $1 a day to $4 a day is already an improvement.
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  • AgroCenta focuses on 3 key impact goals for Ghana:No Poverty: Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • mehdibella
       
      as you can see this company cares a lot about the livelyhood of their farmers and is trying to provide them only with the best features that would make life easier which in fact the main things that they tackle in the SDGs.
  • Seedstars Summit has been phenomenal. It has put AgroCenta on a pedestal and in the spotlight of a huge community in Africa. The experience after the Summit has been amazing: we received a lot of proposals from potential investors, partners and other service providers keen on working with us for growth and expansion.
  • Winning the vote of the entire jury, AgroCenta from Ghana was crowned the Seedstars Global Winner of the 5th edition of Seedstars Summit. At Seedstars, we are convinced that AgroCenta will shape the future of AgriTech in Africa. Indeed, the start-up’s mission is to improve the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade.
    • aminej
       
      Agrocenta will have a great impact on farmers in Africa since it will enable them to protect their production and have an insurace in case of any risks. It will also help them regulate the market of agricultural products in order to set a price for each one
  • We identified a missing gap in the value chain that was the capacity to access the market for smallholder farmers after they have successfully cultivated their commodities. Access to the market was a huge problem for millions of smallholder farmers.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta is fulfilling a market gap that is the need for smallholder farmers to access the market.
  • AgroCenta focuses as well as Seedstars on achieving the Sustainable Goals set up by the UN
    • sawsanenn
       
      one of the main goals is to reach economic growth by empowering smallholders farmers to see agriculture not only as a survival solution but as an investment
  • Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Agrocenta main goals are the following: first and the most evident one no poverty especially for farmers who are not paid enough. second, gender equality and finally economic agricultural development within the country.
  • A great team for sure! Our major strength has been a team made of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences and a deep understanding of the agricultural value chain. This asset allowed us to save a lot of time we would have naturally spent on trying to fine tune and launch the AgroCenta platform. Thanks to that we avoided making the common mistakes many new and unexperienced founders make.
    • ghtazi
       
      what we can understand is that having a great team is the key asset that led to the rapid growth of Agrocenta. cross-cultural team has been a plus for the development of agrocenta. it helped the company to save time and avoid making common mistakes that many new and inexperienced founders make.
  • Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
mehdibella

GSMA | Meet our portfolio start-ups: AgroCenta, Ghana | Mobile for Development - 0 views

  • The start-up provides access to truck delivery services and real-time market information via SMS and IVR. Building on this platform, AgroCenta now enables farmers to receive mobile money, build their credit score and access financial services (like crop insurance) through its latest mobile product, AgroPay.
  • In a country where agriculture is the primary economic occupation of many — employing 52 per cent of Ghana’s labour force — the AgriTech start-up launched AgroTrade, an online platform that connects smallholder farmers in the staple food value chain to a wider online market.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects the importance of agriculture in Ghana, and which products/services offered by AgroCenta serve to do: AgroTrade connects smallholder farmers to a wider online market & AgroPay allows farmers to receive money, build their credit score and access financial services i.e. crop insurance through their mobile phones.
  • In Ghana, AgroCenta has set up a mobile money API integration partnership with MTN and Vodafone to pay smallholder farmers directly and seamlessly via mobile money through its AgroPay platform.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This part reflects the collaborations engaged by AgroCenta with mobile operators MTN and Vodafone to support financial literacy and facilitate the transfer of mobile money.
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  • Both mobile operators will also be supporting AgroCenta farmers with financial literacy training on-the-ground. AgroCenta has also strengthened its partnership with Vodafone Ghana to allow smallholder farmers on its platform to access free voice calls between farmers and discounted mobile devices and bundles
  • Both mobile operators will also be supporting AgroCenta farmers with financial literacy training on-the-ground. AgroCenta has also strengthened its partnership with Vodafone Ghana to allow smallholder farmers on its platform to access free voice calls between farmers and discounted mobile devices and bundles
  • Through this partnership, Vodafone Ghana can liaise with the AgroCenta team to onboard AgroCenta farmers on its Small Office/Home Office (SoHo) packages.
    • mehdibella
       
      As of July 2019, AgroCenta had registered 46,100 smallholder farmers on the AgroTrade platform across four regions and 640 communities.
  • As of July 2019, AgroCenta had registered 46,100 smallholder farmers on the AgroTrade platform across four regions and 640 communities.
  • lack of access to structured markets, which leaves them at the mercy of predatory brokers or middlemen who buy at exploitative prices, and lack of access to finance, which means they may never move beyond smallholder farming to middle-level or even commercial farming.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      The inability of smallholder farmers to access markets pushes them to sell to middlemen with exploitative prices and the incapacity to get loans also prevents these farmers to grow.
  •  
    "lack of access to structured markets, which leaves them at the mercy of predatory brokers or middlemen who buy at exploitative prices, and lack of access to finance, which means they may never move beyond smallholder farming to middle-level or even commercial farming."
kenzabenessalah

AgroCenta | GODAN - 0 views

  • AgroCenta is an agricultural technology platform that provides an end-to-end solution for smallholder farmers in the post-harvest value chain from farm to market, leveraging on technology to create impact. AgroCenta focuses on 4 key areas in the agricultural value chain namely market linkage, access to real time market information, access to on-demand trucks and logistics services and financial inclusion platform all targeted at the smallholder farmer
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      AgroCenta doesn't only provide access to smallholder farmers, but there's an entire process behind it. It is in charge of the logistics, the delivery system, the finances, and the real time data.
mehdibella

AgroCenta-Empowering-smallholder-farmers-through-finance-information-and-market-access.pdf - 0 views

shared by mehdibella on 08 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • In 2016, AgroCenta set out to address these challenges. In a country where agriculture is the primary economic occupation of many — employing 52 per cent of Ghana’s labour force — the AgriT ech start-up launched AgroTrade, an online platform that connects smallholder farmers in the staple food value chain to a wider online market.
    • mehdibella
       
      agrocenta made it possible for many farmers to get the possibility to engage the community with technology and actually gain more and save to make better products
  • AgroCenta had registered 46,100 smallholder farmers on the AgroTrade platform across four regions and 640 communities. Since launching AgroPay in January 2019, 2,750 smallholder farmers in two regions of Ghana are now active on the platform.
  • AgroCenta has hosted and provided over 500 farmer engagement sessions and trainings since launch. Skilled professionals deliver these sessions in farming communities and methodologies are continuously updated to reflect state-of-theart farming practices.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • AgroCenta received a grant from the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund in November 2018 to further develop and scale its financial solution, AgroPay.
  • AgroCenta eliminates inefficiencies in the value chain and ensures farmers are remunerated fairly.
  •  
    AgroCenta has been fighting over two main causes: Lack of access to structured markets, which leaves the poor and illeterate at the mercy of predatory brokers or middlemen who buy at exploitative prices, and lack of access to finance, which means they may never move beyond smallholder farming to middle-level or even commercial farming
mehdi-ezzaoui

Pula: Insuretech Startup Closes $6M Series A Funding to Scale Up Business Across Africa - 1 views

  • Funding Pula: Insuretech Startup Closes $6M Series A Funding to Scale Up Business Across Africa 0 SharesShareTweetSharePin The African Insuretech service provider, Pula, has recently closed a US$6 million Series A funding round led by TLcom Capital and had participation from Women’s World Banking. It specializes in digital as well as agric insurance to derisk smallholder farmers across Africa. This new round of investment to the insuretech startup will be used to scale up operations in the company’s existing 13 markets across Africa. Pula has so far impacted over 4.3 million farmers on the continent and the new funding will help push its expansion into Asia to power resilience and profitability for Asian smallholder farmers. Pula was launched by Rose Goslinga and Thomas Njeru in 2015, to design and deliver innovative agricultural insurance and digital products to help smallholders farmers improve their farming practices, endure climate risks and bolster their incomes. This has become necessary because for smallholder farmers in emerging markets, the traditional method of calculating insurance through farm visits is often expensive, meaning they are often neglected from financial protection against climate risks.
  •  
    This new round of investment to the insuretech startup will be used to scale up operations in the company's existing 13 markets across Africa. Pula has so far impacted over 4.3 million farmers on the continent and the new funding will help push its expansion into Asia to power resilience and profitability for Asian smallholder farmers.
nouhaila_zaki

The future of Africa's Agriculture rests with the youth | E-Agriculture - 2 views

  • The youth in the study said that their biggest obstacle to a career in farming was learning the digital and technical skills needed in todays’ market. Technologies such as cloud computing, soil sensors, drones have changed food production and processing – digital literacy is now a must!
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it emphasizes on how digital literacy could contribute to the creation of jobs in Africa, which are most needed.
  • he second important reasons they raised was land ownership, most youths who receive farming land get smaller pieces of land parceled out. The challenge is that young farmers must produce more yields from smaller spaces, without innovative technologies In some countries for example in Kenya, some youth are innovatively establishing youth-driven innovations which sadly do not receive political or financial support that allows for viability and scalability.
  • Africa is in the height of a crisis and an opportunity. Africa’s population stands at 1,2 billion people and over 60% are below the age of 25. Yet most African youths are not employed, and according to the World Bank by 2035, 350 million new jobs will be needed. Africa’s population is growing faster than jobs are created. There is a potential for agriculture to create employment, however, African youths in Sub-Saharan Africa do not realize agriculture as a profitable opportunity for livelihood. There is a growing notion that the best way to entice young people back to the farms is through making youths access information and communication technologies tailored for agriculture.
mohammed_ab

Badly Needed, Hard to Deliver: The Challenges of Selling Drought Insurance to African F... - 0 views

  • Despite robust financial subsidies, many programs have found that selling insurance to poor African farmers is extremely challenging. This remains the case even when risk products are bundled with other services, such as community savings programs and training in how to improve crop yields. For instance, a 10-year-old government farm insurance program in Ghana has fallen far short of expectations, according to multiple observers—including the same Christopher Udry who inspired Sheehan to create WorldCover. Udry and colleagues reported in a March 2019 paper that the government insurance program had had little meaningful impact. In Kenya and Ethiopia, risk transfer programs aimed at pastoralists have had disappointing results, according to an extensively researched June 2019 article in Devex, which was underwritten by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation. Experts point to two main types of obstacles. First, there are enormous marketing and logistical challenges inherent in trying to sell small insurance policies to very poor farmers who’ve never heard of the concept, live in remote areas and may only speak indigenous languages. Second, it’s difficult to build customer loyalty for an abstract product that often doesn’t provide what farmers expect. The Devex story describes how some pastoralists thought they were putting money into a savings account. When they didn’t get their premiums back, “they start[ed] thinking that this product has failed them,” a coordinator said.
  •  
    This articles explains the different challenges and go to market strategy that Worldcover has adopted in order to penetrate the African market. It's interesting to see that the two main challenges faced by the company were marketing & logistical problems, alongside customer loyalty. I would have never guessed that these are the types of challenges that WorldCover has faced. When you think about the service they are offering, you quickly think that their challenge will be technical because of the type of technology they use.
mbellakbail69

Fintech for All: AgroCenta founder on market access for independent farmers in Ghana | ... - 0 views

  • Financial inclusion, from my personal perspective, is the creation of value added services for the disadvantaged in the society. From the concept of Barefoot Banking to digital innovations, financial inclusion bridges the inequality financial gap that exists between the rural and the urban settings. My personal mission is to make it possible for the smallholder farmer who lives in the most remote parts of Ghana receive payment for his goods and services through a digital solution.
    • hibaerrai
       
      AgroCenta's main goal is to increase financial inclusion in the country as disadvantaged farmers are important. Banks and fintechs don't always care about farmers' rights to extract loans for their businesses, so the point was to create an agritech only consacred for smallholder farmers, and that's amazing.
  • The Fintech space in Ghana is gradually picking up steam with active participation from the public and private sectors. Government regulations on e-money and mobile money technologies are favourable and aiding adoption and rolling out of new technologies every day targeted at the unbanked population. Out of the 6 major telecommunication companies operating in Ghana, 4 are mobile money enabled, facilitating financial transactions between businesses and consumers. Banks also have rolled out services that target financial inclusions. These positive tides are helping shape the Fintech landscape in Ghana.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      AgroCenta's goal is to provide small-scale farmers with access to market by removing exploited purchasing from the value chain and to allow smallholders to directly sell to customers at a fair market price, so as to raise the farmer from subsistence farming to commercial activities.
mehdi-ezzaoui

Kenya's Pula insurtech startup expanding to Asia with $6m funding - Quartz Africa - 1 views

  • Pula, a five-year old insurtech startup, provides small scale farmers with agricultural insurance to help manage the risk of enduring extreme conditions. Insurtech is one of the fast-growing sub-sectors of the fintech, which has booming with investors in African startups.
    • nourserghini
       
      The article explains that Pula is an insurtech whose customers are small scale farmers. Its services are agricultural insurance to manage their risk.
  • Pula will also be expanding to Asia, targeting smallholder farmers as it has in Africa, with a focus on Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Pakistan. “What we’ve realized is that African solutions are in no way inferior to Asian, European solutions
  • Since it was founded in 2015, Pula has impacted 4.3 million farmers across 13 African markets. Goslinga says key to Pula’s business model is helps insurance companies better understand the risks of small scale farming.With an average premium subscription of $4 for small-scale farmers in Africa, Pula actually markets the insurance product to banking partners rather than directly to farmers. The banks make the insurance mandatory before they approve loans to the farmers.
  •  
    This article explains how Pula is serving millions of African farmers and helping them in increasing their annual yield. The company is planning to expand to the Asian market to diversify its customer base.
  •  
    Pula will also be expanding to Asia, targeting smallholder farmers as it has in Africa, with a focus on Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Pakistan. "What we've realized is that African solutions are in no way inferior to Asian, European solutions
aminej

WorldCover raises $6M round for emerging markets' climate insurance | TechCrunch - 1 views

  • WorldCover investor and EchoVC founder Eghosa Omoigui believes the startup’s insurance offerings can actually help farmers improve yield. “Weather-risk drives a lot of decisions with these farmers on what to plant, when to plant, and how much to plant,” he said. “With the crop insurance option, the farmer says, ‘Instead of one hector, I can now plant two or three, because I’m covered.’ ”
  • WorldCover’s platform uses satellite imagery, on-ground sensors, mobile phones and data analytics to create insurance options for farmers whose crop yields are affected adversely by weather events — primarily lack of rain.
  • For the moment, WorldCover only insures for events such as rainfall risk, but in the future it will look to include other weather events, such as tropical storms, in its insurance programs and platform data analytics.
    • tahaemsd
       
      worldcover model oes not assess or provide insurance payouts specificially for climate change
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • the startup will look to possibilities to update its platform to offer farming advice to smallholder farmers, in addition to insurance coverage.
    • aminej
       
      WorldCover has managed to raise funds of 6 milllion which is huge. It shows that companies are more and more helping farmers and agriculture because it is very important for the development of a country
  • WorldCover, a New York and Africa-based climate insurance provider to smallholder farmers, has raised a $6 million Series A round led by MS&AD Ventures.Y Combinator, Western Technology Investment and EchoVC also participated in the round.WorldCover’s platform uses satellite imagery, on-ground sensors, mobile phones and data analytics to create insurance options for farmers whose crop yields are affected adversely by weather events — primarily lack of rain.
  •  
    WorldCover provides a solution for crop and smallholder farmers to protect themselves from weather uncertainty. The company gives an opportunity to those farmers to hedge against weather risks, which helps them increase their yield.
  •  
    Worldcover is an African-based Insurance that covers climate. It mainly targets farmers. It benefits from the use of satellite imagery and data analytics in order to create good insurance options to farmers.
  •  
    Worldcover gives small farmers the correct sort of insurance relying on their region.
kenzabenessalah

AgroCenta - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding - 1 views

  • AgroCenta was founded by two ex-esoko employees, Francis Obirikorang and Michael K. Ocansey in 2015 to improve the agricultural value chain in Ghana. Two critical problems within the value chain, which are the lack of an access to market for smallholder farmers in the rural areas, which subjected them to activities of exploitative, buying frommiddlemen and the lack of a coordinated truck delivery system to cart their commodities from farms to markets to sell.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Improving the value chain in Ghana is essential to its economy and operations. With AgroCenta, problems with delivery systems and untrustworthy marketers will decrease.
mehdibella

index.pdf - 0 views

shared by mehdibella on 12 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • FarmDrive has also partnered with the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) to build the capacity of Kenyan young farmers and stakeholders and help them access finance.
  • Farm Drive has a wide variety of partners including: investors (Engineers without Borders and Mercy Corps); capacity building (Open Capital advisors, ACRE Africa -to create insurance products); and financial institutions (Musoni Kenya).
  • FarmDrive catalyzes financial institutions to lend more to smallholder farmers by de-risking the process through clear and transparent records. Farmer clients of FarmDrive are benefiting from financial awareness, financial management tools, farming-related recommendations, access to finance and links to profitable markets.
    • mehdibella
       
      FarmDrive earns revenues from finance providers for their use of the credit profiles (fixed fee) and from farmers (percentage of loan amount as transaction fee).
ayoubb

'Cassava Smartech initiative way to go' | The Herald - 0 views

  • Michael Tome Business Reporter Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Ministry says it highly upholds technological innovations that seek to develop agriculture productivity.This follows advances made by Cassava Smartech’s EcoFarmer to digitally enhance farming tips through mobile platform, which is a one-stop solution platform that gives farming tips, location-specific weather updates, weekly agriculture commodity market prices and financial services.
    • ayoubb
       
      CASSAVA
mohammed_ab

Pula Secures Funding from Global Investors to Support Smallholder Farmers in Africa and... - 0 views

  • At Pula, we are radically restructuring agricultural insurance, using technology to insure the previously unbanked, uninsured, untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide. We work in nine countries across Africa and Asia, and in 2017 alone, we facilitated crop and livestock insurance cover to 611,000 farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi.
    • nourserghini
       
      Pula serves many African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi.
  • Pula uses satellite data and farm yield measurements to understand how weather patterns affect a smallholder farmer’s yield, and uses this information to automate compensation in case of loss. The company also provides farmers with targeted agronomic advice via SMS messaging, helping them grow more from their existing landholdings.
  • Insurtech startup Pula announced today that it has closed a seed funding round to advance its efforts to provide insurance to smallholder farmers in Africa and South Asia.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This injection of funds will enable Pula to invest further in its technology platform and service offerings.
  •  
    I like the way Pula uses the latest technology in order to understand the weather and the possible problems that farmers might find. This is a very good strategy because farmers feel that Pula is doing its best to deliver the best insurance possible for them.
  •  
    This excerpt shows that Pula has secured new funding to invest more in its technology. This is good news for its customers as they will benefit from better technology and more product offerings.
nouhaila_zaki

Startuplist Africa | Startuplist Africa - 0 views

  • AgroCenta focuses primarily on small holder farmers and farmer based organizations, connects them to a larger market online to trade equitably, a percentage of the sales of farmers farm produce is re-invested into purchase of agric inputs such as fertilizers, seedlings, pesticides, weedicides and hiring of tractor services. AgroCenta eliminates the common practice where middlemen/brokers act as exploitative buyers, purchase produce for less than a third of its actual value from smallholder farmers and re-sell in urban markets for huge profits.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because on the one hand, it introduces the niche market that AgroCenta products and services are targetting; but also the common practices that AgroCenta intended to eliminate (i.e. exploitative behaviors by middlemen and brokers).
hibaerrai

AgroCenta: Empowering and supporting smallholder farmers through technology and innovat... - 0 views

  • AgroCenta provides an end-to-end solution for smallholder farmers in the post-harvest value chain from farm to market, leveraging on technology to create impact. AgroCenta's services include a market linkage platform (AgroTrade) linking farmers directly to buyers and removing exploitative buying, TruckR which is an on-demand trucks and logistics services (uber for trucks), AgroPay which is a financial inclusion plaform for the rural unbanked smallholder farmer.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Agrotrade is a smart initiative and a great platform because farmers won't need to travel or have any contact with the buyer or seller, and in the time of Covid-19, it is beneficial.
tahaemsd

AgroCenta - Disrupt 100 - 0 views

  • AgroCenta has four key strands to the business. First is its AgroTrade platform which enables smallholder farmers in remote farming communities to sell directly to buyers in the urban areas. Second, its TruckR on-demand shipping logistic service provides transport for goods at the click of a button. Third, AgroInfo gives smallholder farmers information on commodity pricing via SMS and Voice solutions, helping farmers make informed decisions on how to price competitively. Lastly, AgroPay is a financial-inclusion product for smallholder farmers, allowing them to easily access credit facilities, layaway some funds and transact using the power of mobile phones.
    • tahaemsd
       
      using its innovative technology which connects smallholder farmers to a larger market to trade and sell directly to buyers in the urban area
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