We have made excellent progress with the Sat4Business smallholder lending pilot in Ghana, where we signed a pioneering services agreement with Advans Ghana Savings & Loans, a subsidiary of the Advans Microfinance Network. Advans Ghana Savings & Loans has since 2017 been offering financial services to smallholder farmers through its value chain financing approach. As part of the lending pilot, FACS, Solidaridad West Africa and Advans Ghana are developing a scheme that will provide much-needed input finance to thousands of smallholder cocoa farmers. The pilot is expected to go live in Q1 2021.

This agreement forms an essential part of the Satellite For Business program, which aims to bring essential financial and information services to smallholder cocoa and oil palm farmers through the use of satellite and other data and the deployment of innovative technologies.