Mobile agriculture platform `Digifarm’ is expected to outpace M-Pesa in performance in the next five years, according to Safaricom.
The firm’s Chief Financial Officer Sitoyo Lopokoiyit says the is projection backed by the rate of growth of farmers on the platform, which he says has been phenomenal.
“Using the mobile technology platform, smallholder farmers get access to information on financial services. They also receive discounted products, customized information and tutorials on farming practices,” he added.
Digifarm was introduced to the Kenyan market in 2017, through a partnership between Safaricom and iProcure, Arifu and Farmdrive.
According to Lopokoiyit, the platform remains focused on digitizing the entire agriculture value chain and has so far registered over 1 million farmers on the platform where the platform is projected to be worth US$1 Billion by 2020.
The platform allows farmers get access to credit and other financial facilities.
They also get to share information, such as expected yields with processors, with all the financial transactions taking place within the M-PESA ecosystem. As of last year, over 200,000 farmers were using the service daily and 7,000 successfully taking out loans to assist with purchasing high-quality seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.
M-PESA was launched in 2007 and has been Safaricom’s top revenue generator.
Last year, M-Pesa accounted for 53 per cent of the company revenue, making a net profit surge of 32.4 per cent to Sh23.9 billion in its current financial year.
Mr. Lopokoiyit was speaking at the Afro-Asian Fintech Festival at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies
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