This archive report was first published on 19 July 2019.
July 19, 2019 - Safaricom has announced that its mobile agriculture platform, DigiFarm, is projected to outgrow M-PESA in the next five years.
Launched in 2017 in partnership with iProcure, Arifu, and Farmdrive, DigiFarm aims to digitize the entire agriculture value chain and has already registered over 1 million farmers.
According to Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom, "In line with our Purpose of Transforming lives, we have provided a mobile technology platform for the smallholding farmers to access a suite of information and financial services, including discounted products, customized information, and tutorials on farming practices. The rate of growth has been phenomenal and we expect that DigiFarm will be bigger than M-PESA in the next three to five years."
As of last year, over 200,000 farmers were using the service daily, and 7,000 successfully took out loans to assist with purchasing high-quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.
One notable example of the platform's success is the partnership between Makueni County and DigiFarm, which has provided a ready market for 640 farmers who are the first beneficiaries of an end-to-end buyer-driven model.
The Fintech Industry in Kenya is estimated to be worth around USD 1 Billion by 2020, and Safaricom is expected to continue using technology to create sustainable ways of doing things by focusing on innovation verticals such as agriculture, healthcare, education, and economic empowerment.
