PUSH Côte d’Ivoire signed partnerships on Thursday 15 October in Abidjan with the Banque nationale d’investissement, Ecobank Côte d’Ivoire and Versus Bank to improve the monitoring of agricultural financing down to producers. A fourth agreement, concluded with Orange Money, concerns the connection between payment services and electronic money.
The scheme is designed to allow money to be tracked from the disbursement of a loan to its use in agricultural value chains. The agreements link PUSH's technical infrastructure with the banks' services, with cooperatives and agricultural businesses acting as intermediaries in the financing chain.
The agreement with Orange Money provides for linking the producer's card to their electronic money account so that they can receive their income there. The partners present this mechanism as a way to ease settlements and reduce cash handling.
PUSH management says it took part, as technical partner to the Conseil du Café-Cacao, in opening more than 1.2 million producer accounts. It also claims that nearly 3,000 cooperatives hold an account.