IFC partners with Vodafone M-PESA Mozambique to digitize payments in the agricultural sector
February 21st 2024
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed this Tuesday, February 20, 2024, a new cooperation agreement with Vodafone M-PESA Mozambique. It aims to explore the possibilities of extending Vodafone’s mobile payment services in rural areas for the benefit of small farmers.
The telecom operator would like to intervene in the agricultural sector, which relies mainly on small farmers (representing 95% of the country’s total agricultural production), dominated by cash payments. Through this partnership, it will expand its mobile payment activities in Mozambique, where around 40% of adults have a mobile money account.
In the East African country, it plans to digitize agricultural value chains starting with payments received for production, and developing more sophisticated products like agricultural insurance.
“The new phase of this collaboration will focus on expanding our value proposition to limit the use of cash in the economy,” explained Sergio Gomes, Director of Vodafone M-PESA Mozambique. And added: “ agriculture is an important sector in which we wish to intervene”.
Beyond the agricultural sector, IFC’s consulting services will enable the telecom operator to reorganize and strengthen its agent network and train its sales team and mobile money agents. The international financial institution will also help it expand its strategy of acquiring and managing merchants in different regions in Mozambique.
Please note that this agreement follows a first collaboration between the IFC and Vodafone M-PESA Mozambique in 2018. The operator strengthened its digital payment service, tripling the number of active users from 1.9 to 6 million from 2018 to 2022.
Source: Agency EcoFin
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