Mastercard and Ecobank collaborate to digitize Africa’s agricultural value chains using Mastercard’s Farm Pass platform. Farm Pass is an award-winning digital platform that connects smallholder farmers to financial and agricultural ecosystems. It boosts the collective positive impact on farming communities by gathering different agriculture sector stakeholders from the supply and demand sides in one agricultural marketplace. It also simplifies smallholder farmers’ move from subsistence to commercial farming. Since its launch in 2015, the platform has reached almost 1 million smallholder farmers in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and India and enables them to increase their prices by 25-50% and boost harvest productivity.
Using the platform, smallholder farmers can sell their produce at a better price, access quality inputs & farming information, receive & make payments digitally, and develop a financial profile. It will also contribute to the continent’s economic growth by making African agriculture more profitable, competitive, and resilient. The partnership is in line with the African Development Bank’s approved Africa Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF), supporting countries in increasing their production and productivity. Among the main activities is connecting farmers with e-wallet systems to digitize agro-inputs procurement. The partnership aims to increase access to financial services to achieve Africa’s agricultural potential.
