Pan-African Savings and Loans Limited, in partnership with AgroCenta under their Financial Inclusion for Small Holder Farmers in Africa Project (FISFAP) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), will provide credit facilities for smallholder farmers in the Afram Plains, south of the Eastern Region.
The partnership’s aim is to provide loans and financial advisory services to all smallholder farmers in order to expand their farming businesses.
Emelia Desiree Atta-Fynn, MD-Pan-African, said as part of her outfit’s strategies to promote financial inclusion and improve livelihoods of its customers, Pan-African embraces collaborative opportunities to offer financial services to the economically active in society.
She said the quest to explore innovative means of doing business and meet the needs of their target group led them to partner with AgroCenta, a company that connects the smallholder farmers in the staple foods (Rice, maize, millet and soybean) value chain to a wider online market; to trade, to access truck delivery services, and get real-time market information – all from their mobile phones through the use of SMS and voice services.
“This partnership is strongly supported by AGRA – a farmer-centred, African-led and partnership-driven institution that is transforming Africa’s smallholder farming to businesses while at the same time advocating for an enabling policy environment,” Madam Atta-Fynn explained.
Amanda Anipu, Programme Officer-AGRA, said AGRA aims at partnering smallholder farmers to expand their businesses.
“According to AGRA, the reason it embarked on this initiative to support everyone in the food chain supply is that they envision, in the future, using online sales for farm produce.”
Francis Obirikorang, CEO-Agrocenta, said the programme will expectedly give loans to over 300 farmers – which include crop insurance and pensions to make life easier when they cannot farm anymore.
Pan-African has over the years leveraged on technology to achieve its corporate goals of making the financial sector relevant to low-income earners and businesses. With the introduction of Quick, a mobile financial product, customers can now have access to their bank accounts with the company from any location at any time.
By simply accessing the short code *777#, one can access their accounts and be able to deposit, withdraw or transfer money to another person via their mobile wallets. This service also allows customers to access short-term credit facilities as well as top-up their phone credit, among others.
