Opportunities for Digital Financial Services in the Cocoa Value Chain in Côte d’Ivoire : Insights from New Data
Côte d’Ivoire has the world’s largest cocoa sector, producing over 1.4 million metric tons of raw cocoa per year, accounting for thirty two percent of world production. Harvest payments often arrive late due to the complex logistics of cash-based p...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/782461531301524037/Opportunities-for-digital-financial-services-in-the-cocoa-value-chain-in-Côte-d-Ivoire-insights-from-new-data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30203 |
| Summary: | Côte d’Ivoire has the world’s largest
cocoa sector, producing over 1.4 million metric tons of raw
cocoa per year, accounting for thirty two percent of world
production. Harvest payments often arrive late due to the
complex logistics of cash-based payments and, it is not
uncommon for the amount farmers receive to be somewhat below
market value due to high commissions taken by chains of
intermediary middlemen. Cognizant of these costs and
inefficiencies, many actors in the cocoa value chain are
exploring alternatives. One such alternative is paying
farmers through Digital financial services (DFS). This
research focuses specifically on mobile money accounts and
discusses, first, how these have already expanded financial
inclusion in Côte d’Ivoire and, secondly, how mobile money
could help deliver products to cocoa farmers that meet their
needs. The study is a knowledge product of the Partnership
for Financial Inclusion, a joint initiative of IFC and The
MasterCard Foundation to expand microfinance and advance
digital financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is
organized as follows: The first section reviews the
financial inclusion landscape in Côte d’Ivoire, revealing
that DFS has unusually high penetration in rural areas. The
second section analyzes the specific financial behavior of
cocoa farmers based on new data collected by IFC,and is
followed by a third section presenting a framework for how
DFS could help improve farmers’ lives. The report concludes
with a call to stakeholders to keep piloting and innovating
with products and payment channels that cater to the
financial needs of rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond. |
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