A new case study by the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance shows how agriculture nonprofit organization One Acre Fund, in partnership with Citi Inclusive Finance, successfully digitised loan repayments for farmers in Kenya. This move significantly boosted transparency and efficiency, driving economic opportunity and financial inclusion for thousands of smallholder farmers and their families.

One Acre Fund, supported by Citi, enabled farmers to easily make loan repayments via mobile money instead of cash, reducing the uncertainty, inefficiency, insecurity and high costs previously caused by cash transactions.

Study findings include:

• Increased participant satisfaction due to transparency and convenience.
• Eighty-five percent decreased instances of repayment fraud.
• Reduced processing time for each repayment from 12-16 days to 2-4 days; farmers now know immediately when their payment is received, eliminating the worry about whether it arrived.
• Eighty percent decrease in repayment processing costs.
• Forty-six percent of time reduced for staff working on collections, allowing for more time helping farmers improve agricultural practices.
• Women farmers benefited especially, feeling safer about payment deliveries.

One Acre Fund is an example of the significant benefits and impact that digital payments and inclusive digital financial infrastructure, as developed in Kenya, can bring to agricultural value chains, contributing to a more sustainable and productive agriculture sector, a cornerstone of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These learnings can easily translate to poor farming communities in other countries and One Acre Fund is working on plans to expand in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia in the future.

Intelsat has announced the opening of a new sales office in Nairobi, Kenya. Intelsat’s Nairobi office will further enhance the company’s responsiveness to its customers, the leading communications services and media companies operating in the East Africa region.

“Our decision to open an office in Nairobi reflects our belief that our satellite-enabled broadband solutions can be a catalyst in the region to expand digital inclusion, creating economic growth,” said Hans Geldenhuys, Intelsat Managing Sales Director, East Africa Region. “Kenya is the business hub of East Africa. Nairobi and our Westlands office location is close to several of our existing customers and offers an outstanding base from which to share our technology and insights with our customers. Under Lawrence Mungai’s leadership, our customers in the region can expect outstanding responsiveness, collaboration and tailored solutions that meet the connectivity needs of businesses operating in East Africa.”

Working closely with regional customers and partners, Intelsat East Africa is poised to benefit from the innovative broadband connectivity solutions coming to market. In particular, Intelsat launched its next generation Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellite platform in 2016. Intelsat 33e, the second EpicNG satellite, began to serve Africa in January 2017. As the largest provider of commercial satellite services to the African continent with twenty two satellites, Intelsat seeks to further bridge the digital divide by driving innovation across the satellite ecosystem and providing solutions that address complex communications challenges facing wireless infrastructure, banking and enterprise networks.

With over 16 million African households receiving direct-to-home services broadcast by Intelsat assets, and 25 state broadcasters on the continent using Intelsat to deliver programming, the company plans further expansion of its African media business, especially as the continent achieves its digital ambitions.

Coollink, a player in Nigeria with a broad portfolio of services addressing enterprise and consumer needs is teaming up with Konnect Africa to provide highly affordable broadband services.  The company’s innovative service offerings and products, include packaged offers inspired by ‘pay as you go’ models and Wi-Fi hotspots schemes.

Konnect Africa  aims to be the leading player in providing stateof-the-art satellite broadband solutions to telecom operators and internet service providers throughout the African continent. Konnect Africa’s ambition is to boost social and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa by providing affordable broadband connectivity everywhere thus reducing the digital divide. With the aim of “taking broadband further”, Konnect Africa is launching commercial services in 2017 and expects to cover most of Sub Saharan Africa by 2019.

Leveraging expertise and knowledge, these partnerships reflect Konnect Africa’s approach to adapt to the specifics of each market to reach out to a vast audience. Wi-Fi hotspot access can be available for a few cents, family offers are being optimised for a few dozens of dollars, while high grade corporate services are also proposed to enable videoconferencing, storage, audio-visual content development and safe and reliable communication. Konnect Africa aims to give its partners the means to succeed with each relevant segment, through dedicated commercial, marketing and technical support. The company will also train and reward local installers to enhance service quality and drive more talent into the industry.

“This initiative echoes a broad ambition. Connecting Africa means changing the way people live, study, perform business, and transforming daily life. We aim to take broadband further and closer to multiple development sectors such as the healthcare system, education, agriculture or SMEs”, explained Laurent Grimaldi, Chief Executive Officer of Konnect Africa. “We are proud to partner with prominent players and excited to embark on this truly unique venture”, he added.

Unlike mobile wireless or fibre technologies, satellite broadband does not depend on terrestrial infrastructure and literally comes ‘from above’. It is seen as the best approach to provide populations in remote locations with access to efficient, cost-effective and easy-to-install internet solutions. Konnect Africa’s is an affiliate of Eutelsat, the leading satellite operator with 40 years of experience. Its advanced satellite technology is a powerful tool for social and economic development.