SSNUP project completion: Improving input loan repayment rates in the cocoa value chain in Côte d’Ivoire
© Godong
As an international microfinance group, Advans CI provides tailored financial solutions to smallholder farmers, cooperatives and agribusiness suppliers in the cocoa value chain. However, cooperatives struggle to recover debts from their members which in turn affects their ability to repay Advans CI, creating a ripple effect across the supply chain.
A SSNUP-sponsored technical assistance project with Foundation Grameen Credit Agricole helped Advans CI to support cocoa cooperatives in improving the level of repayment from their member farmers and to facilitate the renewal of input credit to the cooperatives. The project discerned the root causes of the poor debt repayment rates: for farmers, challenges include poor budgeting and inaccurate estimation of input needs, while cooperatives face difficulties due to the lack of reliable financial data to assess creditworthiness.
These challenges were addressed with training to enhance the ability of 8 cooperatives to manage credit and support farmers on the one hand, while equipping 932 farmers with the skills to manage cash flow and ensure timely repayments on the other hand. As a result of the project, the loan repayment rates of the smallholder farmers significantly improved and Advans CI’s agricultural lending portfolio was strengthened.