Access to Finance Rwanda in its quest to remove barriers that hinder access to financial services to small holder famers undertook a project to build capacity of two financial institutions Unguka Bank and Umutanguha Finance Company to offer Agricultural financial services. The project aimed to develop and improve institutional capacity of Unguka Bank and Umutanguha Finance Company staff to effectively deliver Agricultural Financial services.
FRIENDS Consult was contracted to Strengthen capacity and skills of agriculture credit unit staff with better agricultural lending and product development methodologies. This was achieved through training, mentoring and coaching that was necessary for effective delivery and management of agricultural credit. FCL undertook the following activities;
- Conducted research to ascertain: – Rwandan agricultural market; characteristics of existing bank’s clients and agribusinesses they engage in; desired products and services; potential specific geographical areas for expansion; potential agricultural value chain actors in terms of financing levels and development of a framework of the agricultural loan prototypes among others
- Developed tools and collected data from various categories including input suppliers, Farmers/producers/cooperatives, Aggregators, Trader/Wholesalers, Processors and smallholder farmers with a purpose of developing tailored products to meet their financing needs
- Undertook commodity profiles based on different regions in Rwanda
- Mapped agricultural cooperatives financial institutions would partner with
- Categorized key input supplies sold with estimated volumes sold per year including fertilizers, drugs, seeds and pesticides broken down into specifics for each category of inputs.
- Conducted diagnostics of the two financial institutions through analysis of financial performance, managerial and governance aspects.
Both Unguka Bank and Umutanguha Finance Company are now effectively delivering and managing Agricultural Finances Services accessed by small holder farmers in Rwanda.