Agri-wallet and Geodatics have been awarded 125,000 euro prize money from the Innovator’s Challenge of NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance. The challenge aims to support the development of financial services for smallholder farmers in developing countries based on geodata. Agri-wallet and Geodatics will work together to provide tailored agronomic advice and customized loans for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizer to smallholder farmers in Kenya.

Geospatial information technologies are available for smallholder farmers to boost agricultural production, however the link to finance is hardly ever made. In order to increase their yields, smallholder farmers need finance to buy inputs and fertilizers, to invest in storage facilities, among other things. The NpM Innovator’s Challenge incentivized technology companies to transform their geodata-based solutions for smallholder farmers and make them available for the financial sector.

We are very happy and proud we just won the NpM Innovator’s Challenge at the Accenture Innovation Summit. This challenge, which is supported by NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance, Accenture, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, FMO and the Rabobank foundation aims to incentivize technology companies to develop geodata-based financial services for smallholder farmers in developing countries and emerging economies.

On November 2, the six finalists of the NpM Innovator’s Challenge will gather at the Accenture Innovation Summit to pitch their solutions to a grand jury. Each finalist offers unique ways of using geodata to support access to finance for smallholder farmers.

Agricultural productivity remains stubbornly low in many developing countries, even as populations soar. Rabobank Foundation’s Albert Boogaard believes geodata will help increase yields to meet the growing demand for food and boost farmer incomes.

A staggering 70 percent of the world’s food is grown and produced by smallholder farmers in emerging countries. The NpM Innovator’s Challenge aims to help these farmers to find appropriate finance by incentivizing technology companies to develop geodata-based financial solutions.

The annual conference of the Dutch NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance took place early September in Utrecht with finance for refugees in the centre of the discussions.

A new paper called ‘Finance for refugees: the state of play’ provides a brief overview of the global potential market scope of refugees, and review the progress to improve access to finance by refugees in the past few years. Remaining barriers are briefly described, including policy clarity, relevant information, legal barriers, and funding.

In this article Fadoua Boudiba, Senior Investment Officer for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), shares her insights on the development of the microfinance market and how it provides a unique opportunity to change the narrative of the people in the MENA region, and the refugee crisis.