Signature projects

MSC’s roadmap to agri-revolution: SNS enhancement in Rwanda

  • calendarDec 28, 2023
  • time 2 min

MSC supported BK TecHouse to enhance the capabilities of Rwanda’s Smart Nkunganire System (SNS) in two phases: landscaping and grant proposal refinement. The engagement phase led to an investment roadmap’s development for SNS to increase its reach and impact.

Smart Nkunganire System (SNS) is a public-private partnership (PPP) between BK TecHouse and the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). The Rwandan government uses the system to distribute subsidized seed and fertilizer to more than 1,000 agri-dealers and serve more than 1.2 million smallholder farmers. The platform digitizes the agriculture input supply chain through the subsidy program stakeholders’ database. It monitors the agri input demand or supply at all levels, creates transparency and efficiency, and generates relevant analytics to ease decision-making processes. This promotes a green economy via cashless payments and unlocks access to agriculture insurance and financial services for smallholder farmers in Rwanda.

The platform had limited capabilities. It could not support its commercial viability. In this regard, BKTecHouse sought support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to enhance the platform’s use cases and commercial viability. MSC helped BK TecHouse enhance SNS’s capabilities through a project that had two phases: i) Landscaping of Rwanda’s digital agriculture ecosystem and technical backstopping to facilitate the project design; ii) Grant proposal refinement to expand the SNS digital platform.

MSC helped assess Rwanda AgTech and FinTech players’ landscape in the engagement phase. We developed an investment roadmap for SNS to increase its reach and impact. Further, we designed a standard approach and tool to identify and qualify potential partners.

MSC also developed a partnership assessment framework and supported the first round of partner assessments with two target partners, which included the ISDA. Lastly, we facilitated workshops with about 30 critical stakeholder groups to identify partnerships and explore opportunities for engagement with the expanded SNS digital platform.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the project.

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