Reducing Risk and Increasing Agricultural Loans with Mobile Money in Ghana

In Ghana, the agricultural north supplies food to buyers in the south. The travel is mostly done by car and takes up a lot of time. Also, these long journeys are done carrying large sums of money, as the north suffers from a lack of banks.

To face the issue of large money trandactions across the country, the ADVANCE II Project (Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement) has developed a mobile money solution as it diminishes the threat of theft, ensures efficient payment and offers the access to financial services such as savings, insurance, and credit.

USAID’s ADVANCE II Project promotes farmer's empowerment by strenghtening value chains. It is supported by Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global huger and food security initiative.

ADVANCE II partnered with MTN, one of the largest mobile network providers in Ghana, to implement the project. The project included the training of 1,072 smallholder farmers to use the service. The project leaders have found out that farming communities, and especially women, have asked to scale up the project. The next step is to scale up the program to 10,000 smallholder farmers.

Source: http://www.ictworks.org/2017/04/17/reducing-risk-and-increasing-agricult...