AGRA and SELF Tanzania: Innovative digitally enabled development to smoothen the income for smallholder maize farmers in Tanzania

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) hired MSC to provide technical assistance to its partner, SELF MF Tanzania. The institution provides wholesale loans to mass-market banks and MFIs in Tanzania. The MSC team worked with four MFIs and SACCOs to develop seasonal agriculture loan products to enable approximately 25,000 smallholder farm inputs including seeds, farm labor, and fertilizer.

The tranched loan product also provided some funds for household expenses, just before harvest time when many farmers have low-income streams. The loans are disbursed through mobile money services and therefore reach many more farmers than would have been the case through the few branches of the partner MFIs and SACCOs.

The number of farmers accessing these loans gradually increased in the first farming season in Southern Tanzania to reach 1,000 farmers. By mid-2018, three partners had disbursed loans worth USD 500,000 to smallholder farmers in Tanzania and improved farming activities in the country significantly.