Greenland Fedha Limited (GFL), microfinance institutions for small-scale tea farmers in Kenya, has partnered with Microsoft so as to improve the financial services to the tea sub sector in the country.
Microsoft will be offering is product the ‘Dynamics NAV’ which will not only automate Greenland’s processes, but also enabe it to develop a mobile payment solution.
GFL is wholly owned by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Holdings; It is unique in that it offers its loan recipients the option to apply for and repay their loans using green leaf as collateral, with specific formulas in place to work out the interest and repayment rate.
“We realized that to get ahead, we needed to use technology,” says GFL ICT Manager, Godfrey Waikato. “We chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV because we could see Microsoft is trusted, well-known, offers a lot of after-sales support and most importantly has good relationships with its partners.”
Tobias Otieno, CEO of CoreTEC Systems and Solutions Ltd stated that “The mobile money financial service that we customized for Greenland Fedha is one of our innovative products that we have developed with Greenland Fedha’s vision and strategy in mind.”
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Dynamics NAV is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution designed for small to mid-sized businesses. Most notably, GFL was able to build a mobile payment solution with the help of Dynamics NAV.
“This has changed the way we operate because we are now able to get money to farmers regardless of whether they have a bank account or how remote their farms are – by simply paying the money directly into their mobile phones. It’s also now possible for our customers to access the system on the go and work out their qualifying loan amount and repayment instalment,” explains Waiharo.
Kunle Awosika, Country Manager, Microsoft Kenya says, “A recent study from the Boston Consulting Group states that SMEs that embrace technology can increase revenues 15 percentage points faster and create jobs almost twice as fast. SMEs like GFL are contributing to a growing economy across the world and especially an economy like Kenya, where their contribution adds about 40% to the GDP”.
