Agriculture

How mobile phones improve market efficiency?

This paper finds that mobile phone network rollout, that allowed traders better access to market information, led to a 10-13% reduction in price dispersion of maize crop.

Digital Economy Blueprint: Kenya

Kenya’s “Digital Economy Blueprint” provides a conceptual framework for setting up a successful digital economy in the country. The document identifies and explores five pillars of focus and is relevant for our work not just in Kenya but across Africa.

Improving financial inclusion through data for smallholder farmers in Kenya

As mobile-based digital agricultural solutions take hold in Kenya, there is a great opportunity to use data for improving financial inclusion of smallholder farmers.

Cash usage behaviour and its implication for digital payments: A case of Ghana and Nigeria's smallholder cassava value chain

Education programs and awareness campaigns can help improve mobile money usage among smallholder cassava farmers in Nigeria and Ghana. Better agent network and incentives may help too. Read …

Using digital tools to grow africulture and financial inclusion in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a sole mobile network provider and a banking sector that is closed to foreign ownership. Does that make it easy for the government to take a rural-first approach to digitization? Learn about it more in this USAIDFeed The Future brief that also mentions the Alliance.

Middle East and North Africa Economic Monitor, October 2018: A New Economy in Middle East and North Africa

This report lays out the principles for a new digital economy for MENA that embraces innovation and entrepreneurship, youth and women economic empowerment, rekindling the role of State, etc.

Next Steps for the Digital Revolution in Africa: Inclusive Growth and Job Creation Lessons from Kenya

This paper provides examples of how digitization in Kenya has supported the economy via a retail electronic payments system, financial inclusion, increased financial sector vibrancy, and pushed GDP growth with it.

Prerequisites to digitizing the agricultural last mile

Digitizing Value Chain Finance for Smallholder Farmers

The paper presents use cases for digital financial services (DFS) along value chains across three broad categories- overcoming barriers to providing financial services, improving the efficiency of financial transactions, and improving market opportunities.

Guide to the Use of Digital Financial Services in Agriculture

This Guidebook provides an easy-to-use tool to understand how digital finance is helping addressing some of the challenges faced by smallholder farmers and includes some interesting use cases from Bangladesh, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

Mobile payments: How digital finance is transforming agriculture

This report is based on primary research on agriculture mobile payments initiatives in Ghana, Uganda and Zambia with the aim of understanding the potential of mobile finance for the agricultural sector and how these barriers might be overcome.

Mobile Financial Services In Bangladesh

The report provides an overview of the MFS progress in Bangladesh and discusses how selection of staff and beneficiaries from USAID agriculture and health projects are using both traditional and mobile financial services.

Africa agriculture status report 2015: Youth and agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Each year, 10 million young Africans enter the continent’s workforce, more than ever before. Although this highlights the great challenge of youth unemployment, it could also be a great oppo…

Small-scale Kenyan farmers use mobile money to turn remittances into farm profits

A study has found that Kenyan farmers who use mobile money have 35% higher profits per acre of banana production than non-users. Mobile money also increased household income by 40% and contr…

Fintech for the Water Sector

This paper explores how fintech can support expansion of market-based solutions for water, sanitation, and irrigation, identifying several use cases where fintech is already being used to address financial inclusion and access to water.