Fortis to provide land, clear, harvest farms for smallholder farmers

Mobile money operator, Fortis Mobile Money Limited, has developed a new product tagged, ‘Digital Finance for Rural Agricultural Development (DiFRAD)’ to assist smallholder farmers especially in rural communities. Managing Director of Fortis Mobile Money, Samuel Oladimeji, said in Lagos that DiFRAD was a digital product aimed at bringing rural women on board the mobile money […]

Mobile money operator, Fortis Mobile Money Limited, has developed a new product tagged, ‘Digital Finance for Rural Agricultural Development (DiFRAD)’ to assist smallholder farmers especially in rural communities.

Managing Director of Fortis Mobile Money, Samuel Oladimeji, said in Lagos that DiFRAD was a digital product aimed at bringing rural women on board the mobile money platform.

According to him, DiFRAD focuses on the value chain instead of isolated financing as the company, in partnership with microfinance banks would support individual farmers with farmland, clearing, harvesting and selling. 

“We, in partnership with microfinance banks and insurance companies, finance the entire value chain starting from provision of farmland through its clearing to its harvesting, processing and selling.

“Particularly, this product was developed for smallholder farmers especially those in the rural and peri-urban communities in the north-central, north-east and north-west. 

“This is digital agricultural initiative. The product was inspired by a first-hand encounter with some farming communities in Niger and Cross River states during some of our Cash Transfer Programmes,” he said.