Financial inclusion for smallholders along the cocoa value chain in Ghana
Market stall owners: Ariane Appel (SCBF Secretariat), Konrad Ellsässer (FIDES)
The Swiss Capacity Building Facility (SCBF) is a public-private development partnership (PPDP) that assists financial institutions such as insurance companies, microfinance banks, and savings and commercial banks, in scaling up their outreach to low-income households, smallholder farmers, and micro, small and medium businesses in developing countries.
At the market stall the specific experience in the cocoa value chain in Ghana is presented. In this case the Swiss Microfinance Holding SMH, the chocolate producer Lindt & Sprüngli, Armajaro and Allianz partnered to develop financial services and delivery mechanisms to enable cocoa farmers to move out of poverty. SCBF thus created a platform where the private sector cand partner with the public sector, thereby test innovative ideas and provide private investors access to a relatively risky, unknown market in order to establish long-term partnerships and ensure sustainable investments. There are however some discussions about the dependence of the farmers on one single consortium of multinationals.
Key takeaways are:
- The project invested into business relations between existing actors and intermediaries. The challenge was thus formalizing these relations and creating transparency in this business.
- The approach used was described as “open source”, spearheaded by the involved multinationals with the opportunity for other firms to join in and/or replicate.
