Sente KuFarm YO

The Sente KuFarm YO Project

The Sente KuFarm YO initiative, spearheaded by Samuel Kusasira, founder of the Ekcians GreenLyf Foundation, is transforming youth and smallholder farmer access to finance through a streamlined, tech-enabled system that integrates mobile money and agricultural support services.

The project targets youth and smallholder farmers with capital requirements not exceeding 5 million to invest in farming activities. The farmer must be a local resident and registered at a village-level farmer group. Farmers are profiled by local farmers’ group leadership committee, supported by extension work. The profile is submitted to a partner financial institution (bank) for verification and farmer loan profiling.

The farmers’ information is automated and integrated into the mobile money systems (fintech) for user accessibility. Unlike the other mass government programmes, Sente KuFarm YO project is user needs-based prompt system, where individuals are pre-qualified and can voluntarily request for the farm input loan services directly from a financial institution using their mobile phone.

Unlike the existing solution, Sente KuFarm YO is a cashless mobile money service. This achieves a 99% chance for no loan diversion. The voucher is designed to only be cashed by pre-qualified agents who are qualified local agricultural input suppliers. The voucher is debited upon a two-stage verification to guard against fraud. It also permits insurance as it reduces investment risks
from funds diversion. This is a potential add-in targeting youths for increased employability in the agricultural sector, a tool to target urban idle youth back to their districts to engage in productive sectors and monetize the smallholder farming away from subsistence farming.

Program Features: Sente KuFarm YO

Controls for diversion of credit or loanable funds, which is the biggest risk with loan financing
among the uneducated and poor communities.
Guarantees efficient use of financial support to smallholder farmers as it is a farm needs based
fund request model.
Improves financial discipline and ease access to financing by smallholder farmers through
Building a credit profile.
Guarantee ease access to unsecured bank credit facility to smallholder farmers to, as result,
evidence-based farmers’ profiling through the piloting of the segment.
Increased farm productivity and food security as a result of timely access to agricultural inputs
and extension services.
Poverty reduction among smallholder farmers due to integrated commercial aspects in the
current subsistence agricultural practice.
The project is a great political tool to engage youth in productive agricultural activity instead
of wasting time in risky political ideologies.
Increased tax base for the economy, through empowering small scale holder subsistence
Farmers join the money economy.