Financial Inclusion: Heifer, ThriveAgric Ease Access For 125,000 Smallholder Farmers

A Global Nonprofit Organisation, Heifer International and its consortium partners, Agricultural Technology Company, ThriveAgric is exploring ways to scale up access to finance for 125,000 smallholder farmers.

During the Access to Finance breakfast meeting which held yesterday in Abuja to mark the official launch of the ThriveAgric’s AyuTe (Agriculture, Youth and Technology) Project, stakeholders examined ways of building financial resilience to empower 125,000 smallholder farmers with financial inclusion access and building the largest network of profitable farmers across Africa while ensuring food security on the continent.

The event brought together, chief executive officers and sector leaders of financial service providers, banks, government officials, farmers and microenterprise owners to dialogue on how to improve access to finance for the benefit of communities in eight(8) northern states including Adamawa, Gombe, Tone, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi by facilitating opening of bank accounts, debit cards and other financial services. In addition, the ThriveAgric will also be providing 1,000 Point of Sale(POS) devices to selected Nigerian youths to boost and provide additional income to their families.

Speaking on the company’s vision behind the AYuTe Project, Ayodeji Arikawe, CoFounder at ThriveAgric, said:

“At ThriveAgric, our driving force has always been to empower smallholder farmers for a dignified livelihood. By connecting smallholder farmers to the formal financial economy, we are positioning them for better access to finance, credit, digital services and introducing them to the formal economy which has numerous other benefits in the long run. We are excited about this initiative we’re undertaking with Heifer International through the AYuTe Africa Challenge, he said.

Last year, ThriveAgric emerged as the West African winners of the annual AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving $1m.

In his address, the Country Director of Heifer International, Rufus Idris rightly posited that the Inadequate access to financial services is a key barrier limiting smallholder farmers from improving farming practices, adopting innovation and increasing their production outputs. We are excited about this opportunity to not only invest in ThriveAgric’s solutions but

scale up an agritech innovation that confronts financial inclusion challenges facing smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

According to Rufus Idris, access to funding remains one of the biggest challenges confronting Smallholder farmers in Africa.

Therefore by facilitating account

opening, distribution of bank cards and setting up POS operators in the rural northern communities, ThriveAgric will be leveraging Heifer International’s support to increase access to formal financial services through digital tools thereby driving financial inclusion, a key promoter of access to finance and markets for more smallholder farmers.