RimFin ProjectSept. 2013 to May 2014

Overview

Project Overview

Execution, Insights and Lessons

Conclusion

Q&A

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3

Project Overview

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RIMFin refers to Rice Mobile

Finance, an initiative led by ASI

VISA Foundation approved a grant

of USD100K for the project

VISA Foundation - Fund

Provider

Millicom (Ghana) / Tigo Cash –

Training, Execution and

Payment platform provider

Key Participants

Agribusiness Systems

International (ASI) -

Facilitating, Training and

Organizing farmers

Global Agric

Development

Company(GADCO) – Rice

Buyer, Collaboration and

Payment

AGRA – Funding the Ghana Commercialization of Rice Program implemented by ASI

Key Issues

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Delayed payments to rice farmers

(Side Selling; No loyalty to single Buyer)

Lack of Privacy with Payments

(Community and social pressure to give loans and

gifts)Cash-in-Transit Risk

(Cash handling risk / safety)

Administrative and Financial

burden(Rice buyer)

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Project Execution, Insights and Lessons

Execution: critical success factors are proximity of Tigo Cash agents and availability of liquidity…

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• Ambassadors

• Education

• Support

• Trust

• Coverage

• Agents

• Liquidity

Availability

Farmer Buy-in

• Trial

• Pre-warning

• Confirmation

Payment

• Savings

• Buy Airtime

• Send Cash (P2P)

• Withdrawal

Usage

• Pay for goods

• Send to others

• Receive e-cash

• Educate others

Ecosystem

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2

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Farmer buy-in & gaining their trust was an involving 3-month process, resulting in ~720 farmers educated

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1

• Farmers are located in 14 communities

• Rain-fed (12)• Irrigated (2)

• In total, 800 farmers were educated

• Rain-fed (420)• Irrigated (380)

• This process lasted 3 months from Sept. through Nov.

• Building trust with the farmers was critical to the success of project

Farm visits - familiarization

Broadening buy-in process

Ambassador buy-in

Extensive farmer education

Network, Agent and Liquidity availability: critical for delivering on our promise of speed and reliability

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2

No Major Towns Longitude/W Latitude/N RegionNetwork Availability High/Low/Medium

Agent Availability (Yes/No)

If yes, # of Agents

If no, closest agent

Deg. Min. Sec. Deg. Min. Sec.1 Town 1 0 56 43.301 5 21 38.047 Volta High Yes 42 Town 2 0 49 11.11 5 31 40.557 Volta Low Yes 2 Town A3 Town 3 2 1 36.541 4 55 1.24 Volta Low no Town A4 Town 4 1 25 38.138 5 10 58.572 Volta High Yes 15 Town 5 1 58 5.671 4 53 38.613 Volta High Yes 26 Town 6 2 27 56.702 5 2 34.534 Volta High Yes 27 Town 7 2 19 35.152 5 42 40.589 Volta None no Town B8 Town 8 2 13 52.041 4 54 51.782 Volta None no Town B9 Town 9 1 58 43.182 4 54 58.198 Volta High Yes 2

10 Town 10 2 26 17.757 5 48 31.796 Volta High Yes 311 Town 11 0 59 46.889 5 34 46.609 Volta High Yes 412 Town 12 1 16 33.537 5 41 31.979 Volta High Yes 313 Town 13 0 55 44.159 5 23 6.76 Volta Medium Yes 214 Town 14 2 5 29.916 4 55 50.248 Volta Low no Town C15 Town 15 1 41 28.109 5 33 42.538 Volta High Yes 2

Step 1: Location, Network Coverage and Agent Mapping

Step 2: Agent solution, fixed, mobile and transit

Step 3: Liquidity mgmt. option selection grid

The success of the first few payments was critical to send a message to other farmers that it really works

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3

300

38 52 60130

215

Trial

MayApr.Mar.Feb.Jan.

1,500

18,925

13,601

55,370

138,512

100,000

Feb.

Apr.

Mar.

May

Jan.Trial

• So far, ~793 farmers have received payment through Tigo Cash

• 12 Agents have been involved in supporting farmers with payment

• Average amt. paid per farmer is ~USD900 to USD1,000

# of farmers paid per month (2014)(Units)

Total amount paid per month (2014)(USD)

Prior to the project, only 10% had bank accounts ,~30% had ever used SMS and ~3% had ever used MM

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4

90.0%74.0%

60.0%68.0%

97.0% 97.0%

10.0%26.0%

30.0%

32.0%

10.0% 3.0%200180

3.0%200200 100200

Have ever sent an

SMS

Bank Accounts

Household Expenditure

Informal Financial Channels

Have ever used Mobile

Money

Have a Tigo SIM currently

(No Bank Account) (“Susu”)

(Home)

(Farm inputs)

(Sch. Fees)

(No)

(Yes)

(No)

Farmer behavior survey at early stage of project (Oct. 2013)(N=200)

(No)

Over 80% of farmers opted to be on Tigo Cash to receive payments for quicker payments and savings

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4

82.0%71.0%

85.0%

18.0%29.0%

10.0%

815.0%

Immediate action after 1st

payment

277

Farmer Payment Network

339

Wallet usage

(Tigo)(Withdrew

ALL)

(Savings ONLY)

Buy Airtime

Farmer behavior after payments – excl. trial (Apr. 2014) (N=339)

Send (P2P)

• Significant handholding employed to support farmers on first payment

• Continuous education in farmer community to support wallet usage

While ecosystem development in the farmer communities is a logical next step…

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5

…limited amount of effort was put into this for several reasons

Significant effort required to support farmers to use Tigo Cash

Agent monitoring to ensure readiness was involving

Working with banks and super agents to ensure liquidity demanded a lot

Resolving farmer issues such as pin resets, process to send cash etc.

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Conclusion

Conclusion: It’s a journey and an evolution, focus on the fundamentals to build trust before anything else...

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It is critical to deliver on the fundamental

promise…(80% signed up for

Tigo Cash)

Farmers can be moved along the

transaction chain if managed closely(30% used the wallet after 1st

payment)

In my opinion, too many projects try to get to the end goal too

quickly and miss the fundamentals….

It’s a journey and an evolution!!!

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Q&A