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 Dr Betty Anan, Cuntry Manager, ASI  speaking to participants in the SFIN launch
Dr Betty Anan, Cuntry Manager, ASI speaking to participants in the SFIN launch

Firm launches project to increase farmers’ access to finance

Agribusiness Systems International (ASI), a non-profit consulting firm that aligns business interests with smallholder producers, has launched a project for 10,000 smallholder farmers in the Northern Region.

Dubbed: “Smallholder Financial Inclusion Project (SFIN)”, the project seeks to promote financial inclusion through a broader uptake and usage of mobile money payment platforms.

The SFIN, which is expected to increase access to financial services for the beneficiary smallholder farmers, will also reduce the risks associated with physical cash transactions.

Project

Speaking at the launch of the project in Tamale yesterday, the ASI Country Manager, Dr Betty Annan, said the project would target rice, soybean and maize farmers in the Northern Region this year.

She explained that the initiative would be a collaboration between outgrower businesses and their smallholder farmers in the region, with women forming 40 per cent of the beneficiaries.

According to her, many women smallholder farmers in northern Ghana faced many difficulties in getting financial services and support from financial institutions.

Beneficiaries

The SFIN will support cereal value chain actors to have access to mobile financial services and facilitate linkage of project beneficiaries to sustainable savings and investment accounts.

“This project will work with agribusiness firms, outgrower businesses and aggregators to facilitate digital financial services to smallholder farmers through mobile money platforms, thereby reducing the risks associated with cash transactions,” she said.

Dr Annan added that ASI offered proven services that facilitated socially responsible business solutions for commercial success.

The launch was attended by farmers, agribusiness players such as aggregators, mobile money service agents, staff from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and agricultural related non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

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