George Kuria, CEO of ACRE Africa – GIIF’s long-standing partner in East Africa, attended the FarmKenya Connect live on KTN News and KT Farmers TV along with Mary Njeri Thiong'o (FAO Kenya), Samwel Ogola (Warehouse Receipt System Council) and Harry Kimutai (Ministry of Agriculture).

The panel discussed various issues related to finance in agriculture sector in Kenya – challenges and solutions – with a special focus on youth. Mr. Kuria provided insight on the benefits of agriculture insurance in accessing credit and improving livelihoods of farmers, ACRE Africa’s efforts to make insurance accessible via bundling and field outreach, industry development as well as data challenges and advantages. Closing remarks from the panel included the importance of collaboration among various value chain players to make agriculture a profitable venture for the farmers.

ACRE Africa has been known for its innovation and thought leadership in closing the last smile protection gap in East Africa. The company is currently developing a credit scoring tool to supplement traditional personal financial information with location-specific weather and farm information collected to assist banks to make better risk-informed agriculture lending decisions. The conversation highlighted these trends towards using insurance as proxy of collateral to secure loans that help resource-constraint farmers, especially young farmers without title deed or credit history, to invest for a better future.  Closing remarks included the importance of collaboration among various value chain players to make agriculture a profitable venture for the farmers.

Click below to watch the videos: 

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM8C7Qd34fg

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy8fGfWIKzY

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVk2qc6La7w

Photo: Farmers harvest their crops near Kisumu, Kenya. Photo Credit: Peter Kapuscinski / World Bank