The Kenya Commercial Bank has launched a Sh300 million poultry farmer empowerment project in Makueni.
Over 1000 poultry farmers in Kibwezi will benefit from credit facilities, capital, vaccinated insured chicks, chicken feed and vaccines.
The project will be offered under KCB MobiGrow, a mobile-based platform which provides financial and non-financial services to smallholder farmers in Kenya and Rwanda.
Under the project dubbed, ‘From Chick to Market’, poultry farmers will access various MobiGrow services.
Upon maturity, the chicken will be bought at a pre-contracted price by KCB market partners, guaranteeing farmers of a ready market.
Proceeds from the sales will then be remitted to farmers through their KCB MobiGrow accounts to ensure the recovery of loan amounts.
“ We continue to accelerate access to financial services which is in line with our agenda to simplify the lives of our customers to enable their progress,” KCB head of MobiGrow, Dickson Naftali said.
KCB Group has committed Sh50 billion for the next five years to be extended to smallholder farmers. Start-up enterprises in the sector will be offered credit facilities at concessionary rates.
Speaking during the launch, Makueni deputy governor, Adelina Mwau lauded KCB for empowering farmers by providing financial services and expertise.
“It is very encouraging that organisations such as KCB are cognizant of the critical role agriculture has in the economy and are investing in the sector,” Mwau said.
KCB MobiGrow, a partnership with MasterCard Foundation works with various value chains including dairy, maize, potato, sorghum, and rice.
Since its inception in July 2018, the platform has registered over four hundred thousand digital customers and made transactions worth Sh2.4 billion.
During the pilot phase of the chick to market project valued at Sh4.3 million, KCB worked with 49 farmers in Makueni (68 per cent women) who received 10,000 improved kienyeji chicks in the form of an input loan.
(edited by O. Owino)
