[January 17, 2017] |
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Mastercard Launches Mobile Marketplace to Digitize East Africa's Agricultural Sector
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 uiquitous
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 (News - Alert): @MastercardMEA and @MastercardNews,
join the discussion on the Beyond
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Engagement Bureau.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170116005049/en/
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