AgroCenta is contributing to the agenda of feeding 9 Billion people by 2050 through helping smallholder farmers with information of best farming practices, access to capital to produce more to ensure sustainable food security

Last year the startup clinched several accolades including the Environment and Green Energy category at the World Summit Awards, the Young Entrepreneurs Competition at the World Export Development Forum and the Africa Social Good category at Tech Crunch Startup Battlefield Africa. In addition, Seedstars World recently selected AgroCenta for its Seedstars Growth Programme, an investment arm of the Swiss organisation which provides high-growth startups with $50 000 as well as access to business advisory and marketing services. Based on this wide acclaim, this startup is clearly onto something.

CropChain is an integrated agricultural supply chain management platform that provides smallholder farmers with access to markets. Farmers use the platform to advertise their produce, while large offtakers or buyers of selected cereals use it to make purchases or enter long-term offtaker purchase contracts with AgroCenta. AgroCenta leverages the platform to source cereals directly from smallholder farmers to supply to large offtakers who have contracts with the company. This allows AgroCenta to earn margins between the price it pays farmers and the contractually agreed upon price with offtakers.

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.

AgroCenta focuses on 3 key impact goals for Ghana:No Poverty: 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.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.

Since 2017, AgroCenta has successfully completed two rounds of funding to the tune of $750,000 to expand operations in Ghana. In 2017, AgroCenta won the Seedstars Global Competition against other 72 startups from emerging markets across the globe. AgroCenta has grown its farmer base to 45,000 providing additional services of access to finance for smallholder farmers, bringing smallholder farmers onto the financial sector to enjoy services such as crop insurance, micro lending/input financing, mobile payments through mobile money and finally pensions schemes targeted at farmers and beneficiaries in the informal sector with special attention to women and youth. Since 2017, AgroCenta has helped over 28,000 farmers sell over 20,000MT of commodities to large, medium and small scale buyers across the country.   In December 2018, AgroCenta won a grant of $250,000 from GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Fund to further build its financial inclusion platform AgroPay targeted at rural smallholder farmers.

SnapScan wants to see a cashless, frictionless society. For the customer, the app poses an alternative to cash and credit cards because it’s faster. Customers don’t need to wait in a queue, or for the PoS terminal to finish processing their payment. You can simply take a picture of the merchant’s unique QR code, enter the amount, and they’ll be notified either via SMS or their PoS system. The merchant can set up the system in five minutes (SnapScan claims) with no hardware required other than a mobile phone. This means that any person selling apples on the street to a department store can integrate SnapScan. There are also fewer costs involved compared to setting up a credit card terminal, the only charge being a 3% transaction fee. Secondly, it’s meant to be more secure. With SnapScan’s method of payment, the merchant never has to handle your details or card. The app user’s card details are stored on their smartphones and protected with their personal PIN codes.

Yes! SnapScan is safe to use on multiple levels: The app requires a PIN to be entered before any transaction can be completed. This prevents anyone who has your phone from making transactions, as your PIN should be known only to you.  Your card details are also encrypted and stored safely and securely on your phone. Even if your phone is stolen, nobody will be able to see or access your card details.

When it initially started, vendors would receive a voucher and redeem it at certain ATMs and received a pin code with that voucher. That became a bit of a problem as some vendors could not read and did not know how to operate the ATM machine so that was phased out. Vendors then had to bring a bank statement for their SnapScan accounts to be linked to their bank accounts. Those vendors who did not have a bank account had to collect their cash every second week. Problems did occur where customers paid short and vendors complained that the right amounts are not in or the money has been withdrawn but there was always a problem and results would show that the money was drawn. All issues were always resolved by SnapScan. And it became a pain with vendors not collecting their money on time and when they don’t keep the proof of their payments on their phones. Hence, I always have to liaise with SnapScan staff. Vendors getting their payments in their bank account is so much better.

When it initially started, vendors would receive a voucher and redeem it at certain ATMs and received a pin code with that voucher. That became a bit of a problem as some vendors could not read and did not know how to operate the ATM machine so that was phased out. Vendors then had to bring a bank statement for their SnapScan accounts to be linked to their bank accounts. Those vendors who did not have a bank account had to collect their cash every second week. Problems did occur where customers paid short and vendors complained that the right amounts are not in or the money has been withdrawn but there was always a problem and results would show that the money was drawn. All issues were always resolved by SnapScan. And it became a pain with vendors not collecting their money on time and when they don’t keep the proof of their payments on their phones. Hence, I always have to liaise with SnapScan staff. Vendors getting their payments in their bank account is so much better.

According to the research, QR Code usage is strongly age-related, with 673 000 users in the peak age group of 25-34. In contrast, the 15-24 segment amounts to only 471 000, while 494 000 are aged from 35 to 44. A similar number (425 000) makes up the 45-65 age group. Usage drops significantly with retirement age: the 65+ age group comprises 88 000 users. One possible reason for QR code mobile payment solutions such as Snapscan, Zappa, and FlickPay being so popular in South Africa is their ability to provide speedy payments without the need for the large-scale tech investments required by the payment technologies emerging in more developed areas of the world. This is especially the case with Snapscan, which supplies its merchants with a point of sale QR code and a basic mobile phone to track payments. This has allowed it, for instance, to be rolled out as parking payment method in Cape Town’s congested CBD.

“With Masterpass, we’re enabling consumers to make secure and simple everyday payments wherever they are and from any connected device, without needing to physically carry their bank cards with them,” says Mark Elliott, Division President, Mastercard, South Africa. “Thanks to our collaboration with SnapScan, we are pleased to offer consumers even more places to pay using Masterpass, which is now the most widely accepted digital wallet in South Africa.”Since its launch in 2013, SnapScan has grown its acceptance exponentially, especially among small businesses that traditionally did not have access to traditional Point of Sale devices and relied on cash payments. It makes accepting digital card payments cheap and easy, with merchants simply needing to display a QR code at the till, online or on a bill.“Given SnapScan’s extensive acceptance footprint, the ability to offer merchants a single QR code, which will accept payment from multiple mobile wallet solutions such as Masterpass, is the driving force behind creating interoperability,” says Lincoln Mali, head of group card and payments at Standard Bank. “We believe that interoperability between digital payments platforms is one of the keys to driving digital payments usage and acceptance in South Africa.”

During the interview, Ehlers provided some personal insights regarding difficulties facing today’s entrepreneurs. “For me the hardest part was realising a company has been built that a lot of people work for and depend on, and if serious mistakes are made, you and your whole team could be without any kind of job security, without any kind of safety net – and the whole show just ends tomorrow.” Even in light of SnapScan’s success, Ehlers still warns of the idolisation of ideas. “What comes to mind first is to really not over-value your idea. Ideas are important, absolutely, they inspire us, they drive us to experience something. But ideas aren’t always special, you have a lot of them every day. “The really hard part is turning that idea into a reality. Ideas aren’t absolute, they require analysis and change to eventually find something that really works.”

SnapScan lets users make payments with their phone – quickly, easily, and safely. All SnapScan-supported stores have their own unique SnapCode (which is a QR code), and customers can make a payment in-store to them by scanning the code using the camera on their phone and the SnapScan app. Additionally, SnapScan lets users send money to friends, make online payments, pay bills, buy prepaid services in the app, and earn UCount Rewards Points when making a purchase.

Evolving checkout processes are one of the fastest growing trends in the retail space, as users are demanding better and more flexible shopping experiences and payment processes. Because of this, cashless payments and omnichannel options are becoming the norm, putting forward the business case for mobile payments, as they provide customers with a consistent experience. In fact, retailers that are reconfiguring their systems to accommodate increasing mobile customers – who expect multichannel options which support quick and secure digital payments – are more likely to see a boost in sales and growth.