From Cash to Credit
How KENAFF and Partners Are Digitizing Uasin Gishu's Agricultural Value Chains
ELDORET, KENYA — A farmer can cultivate acres of maize, produce thousands of litres of milk, or sell tonnes of vegetables every season — and still be turned away at the bank. Not because the farm isn’t productive. Because years of hard work leave behind no formal financial record.
Changing that reality is now the driving force behind a new digital transformation taking root in Uasin Gishu County.
At the Tuiyotich Farmers’ Cooperative, the Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF), working alongside Mastercard, KCB Bank Eldoret, and CropSoko, officially rolled out the Agri-SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism (ACFM) Farmer Ecosystem Activation Workshop — a major milestone in efforts to modernize Kenya’s agricultural value chains and connect smallholder farmers to the formal financial system.
The activation forms part of the wider Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Africa, a continental initiative co-chaired by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank, designed to accelerate digital inclusion for millions of African farmers and agri-SMEs.
This is not technology for technology’s sake. It is a direct, deliberate assault on one of agriculture’s oldest and most stubborn barriers: financial exclusion.
Turning Invisible Farmers into Bankable Businesses
Across Kenya, countless smallholder farmers operate almost entirely in cash. Inputs are bought in cash. Produce is sold in cash. Labour is paid in cash.
These transactions keep rural economies moving — but they leave behind almost no verifiable evidence of business activity.
Without documented financial records, farmers remain invisible to banks, insurers, and investors. The result is a paradox as old as smallholder farming itself: years of proven, successful production, yet no access to the affordable credit needed to invest in better technology, expand operations, or weather a bad season.
The ACFM initiative is built to close that gap.
Through KENAFF’s Sauti ya Mkulima digital platform, cooperative members are being trained to record purchases, sales, production activity, and other farm transactions electronically. Over time, these records build a trusted digital footprint — one that speaks the language lenders understand: performance, consistency, and credibility.
Instead of relying solely on collateral or conventional banking history, lenders can now assess farmers on real transaction data drawn directly from their day-to-day agricultural activity.
It is a practical, scalable pathway from informal farming to recognized, financeable agribusiness.
“Our focus is to bring farmers into the formal economy by digitizing transactions. Without a digital record, rural stakeholders remain invisible to formal financial systems.” — Ricardo Pareja, Mastercard
Building an Ecosystem, Not Just a Platform
Digital agriculture doesn’t succeed on the strength of an app alone. It requires an integrated ecosystem — markets, financial services, quality inputs, and trusted partners, all working in concert.
That ecosystem was fully on display at the activation workshop.
- KENAFF leads farmer mobilization, digital literacy training, and cooperative engagement, ensuring producers understand both the technology and the commercial opportunity it unlocks.
- Mastercard provides the secure digital infrastructure behind trusted identities, authenticated transactions, and the digital credentials farmers need to participate in formal financial systems.
- KCB Bank Eldoret, the on-the-ground banking partner under the Mastercard framework, worked directly with farmers at the activation — opening bank accounts, issuing Mastercard-enabled cards, and capturing the farmer data needed to kickstart each participant’s digital financial profile.
- CropSoko connects farmers to certified agricultural inputs and structured, reliable market opportunities — ensuring that every digital record translates into real economic value, not just data.
- The African Development Bank and the MADE Alliance provide the strategic backbone: catalytic financing, ecosystem coordination, and policy alignment to strengthen digital agricultural markets across the continent.
Together, these partners are building an ecosystem where every digital transaction moves a farmer one step closer to financial inclusion.
From Transactions to Transformation
The workshop at Tuiyotich Farmers’ Cooperative was built to be practical, not theoretical.
Farmers received hands-on guidance on using digital tools to record transactions, build financial histories, and participate in structured agricultural markets. On-site, KCB Bank Eldoret worked directly with participants to open bank accounts and issue Mastercard-enabled cards — turning the day’s training into an immediate, tangible first step toward formal financial inclusion. They also learned how digital records can strengthen cooperative governance, unlock better financial products, and build lender and buyer confidence.
Every digitally recorded sale, purchase, or delivery adds to a growing profile of financial reliability — one transaction at a time.
Over time, these records can lower lending risk, reduce financing costs, and expand investment opportunities across the entire agricultural value chain. Beyond credit, digitization also sharpens transparency, improves traceability, and enables smarter planning for farmers and agribusinesses alike.
Scaling a National Vision
Through the MADE Alliance, KENAFF is working to improve the bankability and digital readiness of 250,000 smallholder farmers across Kenya — a target that demands stronger farmer organizations, wider digital literacy, deeper financial inclusion, and more resilient value chains capable of meeting the standards of modern markets.
As more cooperatives join Sauti ya Mkulima, the impact compounds well beyond any single farmer. Financial institutions gain greater confidence in agricultural lending. Buyers benefit from more transparent, traceable supply chains. And rural communities become better positioned to attract investment and take their place in Kenya’s fast-growing digital economy.
A New Chapter for Kenyan Agriculture
For decades, a farmer’s greatest assets — knowledge, resilience, hard-won expertise — never appeared on any balance sheet.
That is changing.
By turning everyday farm transactions into trusted digital records, KENAFF and its partners are building more than financial histories. They are building opportunity.
The activation at Tuiyotich Farmers’ Cooperative proves a simple point: when farmers become digitally visible, they become financially empowered. And when thousands of smallholders gain access to credit, markets, and modern financial services, the ripple effects reach across entire agricultural value chains.
As Kenya accelerates its digital transformation agenda, initiatives like the Agri-SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism make one thing clear: the future of agriculture won’t be measured by harvests alone, but by how effectively farmers are connected to the financial systems that let them grow, innovate, and prosper.