Review 2007
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Important tips on growing crops are relayed from the Uganda
National Farmers Federation headquarters to district level
offices, and then to 24 ‘village phone centres’, in which
each farmers’ group owns a mobile phone. The farmers also
send and receive SMS messages with updates on market prices,
saving at times a whole day’s travel to market.
SFSA provided a loan guarantee so farmers had access to capital
from a local microfinance company to purchase a mobile phone.
Farmers use village phones to sell units of telephone time
to others for a profit. The profits have then helped fund
new income-generating enterprises, in one case, the purchase
of two boats to ferry people back and forth across the Nile
River morning and evening.
Milly Sekandi a member of Zibula Atudde Women’s Group purchased
a village phone. She and other farmers have grown upland rice
and maize and are now able to confirm prices in Kampala and
the border trading markets in Busia, Kenya. A few years ago
it would have been the middlemen who dictated the price and
made the most profit from sales.
Some farmers are liaising with
buyers who drive from Kenya. Before, they may have waited days
for the buyer to arrive. Now, they can stay at their farms until
the buyer calls to say he is nearby. |
Others are using
the phones to arrange milk deliveries. Zubairi Sebyala, for
example, is the village phone operator at Bugerere Dairy at
Baale, to the north of Kayunga District, which specializes in
the production of milk. Any delay in delivery can spell disaster,
as the milk deteriorates rapidly in the heat. Using the village
phone, dairy farmers monitor prices at faraway markets and connect
to buyers to arrange prompt delivery, saving their milk from
going sour.
Together with partners
including Deutsche
Bank Americas Foundation, Skoll
Foundationand Shell
Foundation, SFSA is co-investing in ASPIRE
to support the growth of small
and medium enterprises in Eastern Africa. ASPIRE is managed
by GroFin,
a specialist business development and finance company providing
business support and appropriate finance to viable businesses
in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Candidate enterprises must have a strong business plan, which
is more important than having a proven track record or collateral.
Financial investment can be up to US $1 million per company,
but it’s the added value of business expertise provided by co-investors
that helps to turn business plans into reality.
Since 2006, ASPIRE has invested more than US $7m in 21 enterprises,
creating employment for nearly 600 people. Over the next two
years, we expect to see this number grow to an additional 70
enterprises. |
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