This document summarizes the RimFin mobile finance project in Ghana from 2013-2014. The project aimed to pay rice farmers digitally using Tigo Cash to address issues with delayed, cash-based payments. Over 720 farmers were educated and around 793 farmers received payments of $900-1000 on average through 12 agents. Prior to the project, only 10% had bank accounts and 3% had used mobile money. After payments, over 80% opted to receive payments via Tigo Cash for quicker payments and savings. While ecosystem development is important, the project focused on fundamentals like educating farmers and delivering reliable digital payments to build trust.

1. RimFin Project
Sept. 2013 to May 2014

2. Overview
 Project Overview
 Execution, Insights and Lessons
 Conclusion
 Q&A
2

3. 3
Project
Overview

4. 4
 RIMFin refers to Rice Mobile Finance, an
initiative led by ASI
 VISA Foundation approved a grant of
USD100K for the project

5.  VISA Foundation - Fund Provider
 Millicom (Ghana) / Tigo Cash –
Training, Execution and Payment
platform provider
Key Participants

6.  Agribusiness Systems
International (ASI) -
Facilitating, Training and
Organizing farmers
 Global Agric Development
Company(GADCO) – Rice
Buyer, Collaboration and
Payment

7. AGRA – Funding the Ghana
Commercialization of Rice
Program implemented by ASI

8. Key Issues
8
Delayed payments to rice farmers
(Side Selling; No loyalty to single Buyer)
Lack of Privacy with Payments
(Community and social pressure to give
loans and gifts)
Cash-in-Transit Risk
(Cash handling risk / safety)
Administrative and
Financial burden
(Rice buyer)

9. 9
Project Execution, Insights and
Lessons

10. Execution: critical success factors are proximity of
Tigo Cash agents and availability of liquidity…
10
• Ambassadors
• Education
• Support
• Trust
• Coverage
• Agents
• Liquidity
Availability
Farmer Buy-in
• Trial
• Pre-warning
• Confirmation
Payment
• Savings
• Buy Airtime
• Send Cash (P2P)
• Withdrawal
Usage
• Pay for goods
• Send to others
• Receive e-cash
• Educate others
Ecosystem
1
2
34
5

11. Farmer buy-in & gaining their trust was an involving 3-month
process, resulting in ~720 farmers educated
11
1
• Farmers are located in
14 communities
• Rain-fed (12)
• Irrigated (2)
• In total, 800 farmers
were educated
• Rain-fed (420)
• Irrigated (380)
• This process lasted 3
months from Sept.
through Nov.
• Building trust with the
farmers was critical to
the success of project
Farm visits - familiarization
Broadening buy-in process
Ambassador buy-in
Extensive farmer education

12. Network, Agent and Liquidity availability: critical for
delivering on our promise of speed and reliability
12
2
No MajorTowns Longitude/W Latitude/N Region
NetworkAvailability
High/Low/Medium
AgentAvailability
(Yes/No)
Ifyes,#of
Agents
Ifno,closest
agent
Deg.Min.Sec. Deg.Min.Sec.
1 Town1 05643.301 52138.047 Volta High Yes 4
2 Town2 04911.11 53140.557 Volta Low Yes 2 TownA
3 Town3 2 1 36.541 4551.24 Volta Low no TownA
4 Town4 1 2538.138 51058.572 Volta High Yes 1
5 Town5 1 58 5.671 45338.613 Volta High Yes 2
6 Town6 2 27 56.702 5234.534 Volta High Yes 2
7 Town7 2 19 35.152 54240.589 Volta None no TownB
8 Town8 2 13 52.041 45451.782 Volta None no TownB
9 Town9 1 58 43.182 45458.198 Volta High Yes 2
10 Town10 2 2617.757 54831.796 Volta High Yes 3
11 Town11 05946.889 53446.609 Volta High Yes 4
12 Town12 11633.537 54131.979 Volta High Yes 3
13 Town13 05544.159 5236.76 Volta Medium Yes 2
14 Town14 2 5 29.916 45550.248 Volta Low no TownC
15 Town15 1 41 28.109 53342.538 Volta High Yes 2
Step 1: Location, Network
Coverage and Agent Mapping
Step 2: Agent solution,
fixed, mobile and transit
Step 3: Liquidity mgmt. option selection grid

13. The success of the first few payments was critical to send a
message to other farmers that it really works
13
3
300
38 52 60
130
215
Trial MayApr.Mar.Feb.Jan.
1,500 18,925 13,601
55,370
138,512
100,000
Feb. Apr.Mar. MayJan.Trial
• So far, ~793 farmers have
received payment through
Tigo Cash
• 12 Agents have been
involved in supporting
farmers with payment
• Average amt. paid per
farmer is ~USD900 to
USD1,000
# of farmers paid per month (2014)
(Units)
Total amount paid per month (2014)
(USD)

14. Prior to the project, only 10% had bank accounts ,~30% had ever
used SMS and ~3% had ever used MM
14
4
90.0%
74.0%
60.0%
68.0%
97.0% 97.0%
10.0%
26.0%
30.0%
32.0%
10.0%
3.0%
200180
3.0%
200200 100200
Have ever
sent an SMS
Bank Accounts Household
Expenditure
Informal Financial
Channels
Have ever used
Mobile Money
Have a Tigo
SIM currently
(No Bank
Account) (“Susu”)
(Home)
(Farm
inputs)
(Sch. Fees)
(No)
(Yes)
(No)
Farmer behavior survey at early stage of project (Oct. 2013)
(N=200)
(No)

15. Over 80% of farmers opted to be on Tigo Cash to receive
payments for quicker payments and savings
15
4
82.0%
71.0%
85.0%
18.0%
29.0%
10.0%
81
5.0%
Immediate action
after 1st payment
277
Farmer Payment
Network
339
Wallet usage
(Tigo)
(Withdrew
ALL)
(Savings
ONLY)
Buy Airtime
Farmer behavior after payments – excl. trial (Apr. 2014) (N=339)
Send (P2P)
• Significant
handholding
employed to support
farmers on first
payment
• Continuous education
in farmer community
to support wallet
usage

16. While ecosystem development in the farmer communities is a
logical next step…
16
5
…limited amount of effort was put into this for several reasons
Significant effort required to
support farmers to use Tigo
Cash
Agent monitoring to ensure
readiness was involving
Working with banks and super
agents to ensure liquidity
demanded a lot
Resolving farmer issues such
as pin resets, process to send
cash etc.

17. 17
Conclusion

18. Conclusion: It’s a journey and an evolution, focus on the
fundamentals to build trust before anything else...
18
It is critical to deliver on
the fundamental promise…
(80% signed up for Tigo
Cash)
Farmers can be moved
along the transaction
chain if managed closely
(30% used the wallet
after 1st payment)
In my opinion, too many projects try to
get to the end goal too quickly and miss
the fundamentals….
It’s a journey and an evolution!!!

19. 19
Q&A