MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Pride Uganda, Harvesting, CGAP Partner to Develop Alternative Credit Scoring Model to Boost Microfinance, Crop Yields for Small-scale Coffee Farmers

With support from US-based nonprofit CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), US-based social enterprise Harvesting Incorporated is partnering with Pride Microfinance, which is owned by the government of Uganda, to devise a new model for lending to small-scale coffee farmers in Uganda. Greta Bull, the CEO of CGAP, states that “limited access to timely credit products for agricultural inputs [is detrimental to farmers’] crop yields and productivity.” This project will combine traditional data sources with “alternative” ones, such as crop purchasers and mobile network operators in an effort to create algorithms that will “lower the cost of reaching smallholders and drive scale.”

Pride Microfinance offers deposits, money transfers, and group and individual loans, including for purposes such as enterprise, housing, farming, energy efficiency and education. As of 2016, the institution had total assets of UGX 243 billion (USD 67 million), loans of UGX 141 billion (USD 39 million), deposits of UGX 105 billion (USD 29 million), 521,000 customers, return on assets of 6.0 percent and return on equity of 17 percent.

Harvesting works in five continents leveraging data from satellites, financial services providers and artificial intelligence to help lenders serve farmers. Financial data on the firm are not available.

CGAP is a policy and research center dedicated to increasing financial access worldwide by providing market intelligence, promoting standards and offering advisory services to governments, microfinance providers, donors and investors. As of June 2016, CGAP reported annual donor contributions totaling USD 26.8 million. CGAP is co-located with the offices of the World Bank Group.

Sources and Additional Resources

CGAP press release
http://www.cgap.org/news/cgap-and-harvesting-explore-use-alternative-data-credit-scores

Harvesting Wins $12k FMO Fintech Prize
https://www.microcapital.org/special-report-sam-moral-obligation-include-people-financial-system-harvesting-wins-12k-fmo-fintech-microfinance-prize-use-satellite-data-boost/

Pride annual report 2016
https://www.pridemicrofinance.co.ug/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Pride-Annual-report-2016-18.pdf

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.