Mastercard Launches Mobile Marketplace to Digitize East Africa’s Agricultural Sector
January 17 2017 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
2KUZE gives farmers access to more buyers,
enables them to run a more profitable business and paves the way to
a cashless agricultural sector
To tweet this news, copy and paste: #2KUZE will
deliver a mobile payment solution to East Africa’s farmers
#MastercardLab http://mstr.cd/2j8bcKg
Mastercard today launched 2KUZE, a digital platform that
connects smallholder farmers, agents, buyers and banks in East
Africa. 2KUZE, which in Swahili means “Let’s grow together,”
enables farmers to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural
goods via their feature phones. The platform brings the benefits
and security of mobile commerce and payments to farmers in Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania.
2KUZE was developed at the Mastercard Lab for Financial
Inclusion in Nairobi, which was set up in 2015 to develop practical
and cost-effective financial tools that expand access and help
build stable futures for more than 100 million people globally.
Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the
Lab is working with East African entrepreneurs, governments and
other stakeholders to develop local products rooted in the
company’s global knowhow.
In the initial pilot, 2KUZE is being launched in partnership
with Cafédirect Producers Foundation, a non-profit organization
working with 300,000 smallholder farmers globally. Currently, 2,000
small-scale farmers in Nandi Hills, Kenya are using the solution to
sell their produce and working with farmer-friendly agents to
ensure they reach the right buyers for the best price.
“Eighty percent of farmers in Africa are classified as
smallholder farmers having less than 1-2 acres of farming land,
making it extremely difficult to drive growth and prosperity within
this community,” said Daniel Monehin, division president for
Sub-Saharan Africa and head of financial inclusion for
International Markets at Mastercard.
“We believe that by using mobile, a technology that is so
ubiquitous among farmers in Africa, we can improve financial
access, bring in operational efficiency and facilitate faster
payments. The collaboration between the Lab team and farmers in the
market helped to deliver a solution that can be implemented and
make an impact without any major changes to the day-to-day.”
2KUZE makes transacting much safer and simpler for all
stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain – the farmer, the
buyer and the agent. Farmers using 2KUZE can conduct the entire
transaction of selling produce and receiving payments via their
feature phones, without having to walk for hours to the markets.
The platform enables farmers to capture a greater percentage of the
wholesale value of their goods by providing price transparency,
more direct access to buyers and empowerment of farmer-friendly
agents.
This solution in particular supports women farmers, who often
have household duties that prevent them from leaving the farm gate
and are more often subject to having to take whatever deal is given
to them on the day. Digitizing these transactions in a trusted,
auditable environment provides a legitimate financial footprint,
opening up access to loans and other financial services, and also
introducing a more efficient process that benefits the entire value
chain, as well as the overall economy.
Mastercard Lab is exploring the potential for 2KUZE to help
farming communities receive the right level of investment and to
encourage more efficient ways of doing business with smallholder
farmers.
2KUZE is one of several broad-based collaborations on which the
Mastercard Lab for Financial Inclusion is working. The Lab was
established in Africa to contribute to the company’s global
commitment to connect 500 million people to formal financial
services through the use of public-private partnerships with
governments, the private sector and non-governmental
organizations.
About Mastercard:
Mastercard, www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in
the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest
payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial
institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than
210 countries and territories. Mastercard’s products and solutions
make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling,
running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and
more efficient for everyone. Follow us on
Twitter: @MastercardMEA and @MastercardNews, join
the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction
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the Mastercard Engagement Bureau.
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Mastercard Communications:Chaiti Sen,
914-263-6542chaiti.sen@mastercard.com
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