MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nestlé, Telenor Microfinance Bank Providing Digital Loans to Farmers in Pakistan

The Pakistani subsidiary of Switzerland-based food company Nestlé recently partnered with Telenor Microfinance Bank Limited, a Pakistani branch of Norway’s Telenor Group, to provide microloans to its dairy farmer suppliers via Telenor Microfinance’s mobile wallet service, Easypaisa. The program reportedly uses a “digital credit score card and analytics, thus considerably reducing the loan approval turnaround time.” Since the program began in 2017, Telenor has disbursed loans totaling PKR 7.5 million (USD 71,000) under this program.

John Michael Davis, the CFO of Nestlé Pakistan, said “…we have been able to extend lending through digital means to our dairy farmers, [who] initially did not have access to basic financial services. This…will contribute greatly towards their financial sustainability.”

Established in 2005, Telenor had the rupee-equivalent of USD 330 million in audited total assets and USD 3 million in after-tax profit as of 2016.

Founded in 1866, Nestlé has 328,000 employees serving 191 countries. As of 2016, the firm reported CHF 89.5 billion (USD 91.5 billion) in group sales and CHF 13.7 billion (USD 14 billion) in profits from trading operations.

By Aleks Marceau, Research Associate

Sources and additional information:

Article from the Pakistan Observer:
https://pakobserver.net/nestle-telenor-microfinance-bank-partner-launch-digital-lending-farmers/

Nestle Pakistan home page:
http://www.nestle.pk/

Telenor Pakistan home page:
https://www.telenorbank.pk/

MicroCapital on Telenor Pakistan:
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-telenor-pakistan-telenor-microfinance-bank-punjabi-government-creating-connected-agriculture-platform-punjab-capp/

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