Back to the Future: Why MFS Africa is investing in Akorion
In the early days of our journey at MFS Africa, we saw so many areas where mobile money could so clearly transform industries and lives — it almost felt impossible to limit ourselves to certain use cases. As we focused increasingly on enabling interoperability, we kept a close eye on the evolution of adjacent sectors where digital payments could accelerate scale.
One of those sectors is Agriculture. There are about 33 million people in Africa working in farms of one acre or less, commonly called smallholder farmers. Agriculture is inextricably, critically linked to Africa’s economic growth, food security, and climate survival. And one way or the other, the agriculture value chain in Africa will have to get so much more efficient. Because there is a finite amount of land, efficiency is the first answer to the growing population and the need to feed us. Efficiency is also the only way the industry will be able to offer job interesting enough to play its part in resolving unemployment and keeping rural areas vibrant. And in 2019, efficiency rhymes with digital transformation.
In many ways, the story of agriculture and agritech in Africa is what I see as a long game. If I were to compare it to the fintech timelines in Africa I would say that agritech is approximately in fintech’s 2012. Which in hindsight was the perfect time to enter the space. Back to the Future.
So why are we getting involved? Smallholder farmers are businesses. And like any business, they need to transact. We believe MFS Africa has the potential to dramatically improve how they transact, while broadening who they can transact with. In a world increasingly conscious of fair trade and willing to pay a premium for traceability, the MFS Africa APIs combined with the Akorion’s EazyAgric platform offers off-takers an unparalleled ability to deal directly with the farmers. From inputs to output with timely digital payments along the way.
We are particularly excited about the partnerships that got us here. Our investment in Akorion is in partnership with global fertilizer provider K+S. K+S brings global agriculture expertise to this journey, and we’re thrilled to be equal partners in the joint venture with them. Above all, both MFS Africa and the K+S team are tremendously inspired by Akorion co-founders William Luyinda and Esther Karwera, along with Zilla Mary Arach and the rest of the team of young, passionate, talented pioneers. Hearing them share their vision for smallholder farmers about a year ago in Kampala was a deeply emotional moment for me. And their vision certainly resonates with my own for an interconnected Africa.
With such partners on our side, we are ready to play the long game and more. We are ready for the ride.
The investment in Akorion will be made through our newly created venture arm MFS Africa Frontiers. As the name suggests, it will be used to explore Frontier opportunities in the greater ecosystem, and we expect Akorion to the be first of many more to come.
As we open this new chapter, I would like to thank my friend and partner Toshi Katoh for setting us on this path and helping us see the value in looking back to the future. Vivek Wadhera who promptly accepted our call to come back to the future in the MFS Africa family. He is joining Akorion as COO in Uganda as part of the deal. And finally, Janina Kaiser and Prof. Dr. Andreas Gransee at K+S and Daniel Pettersson at Grainpulse (another K+S investment in Uganda) for their personal commitment to the vision of improving the lives of 25M smallholder farmers by 2025. I trust that vision will continue to serve as a North Star as we bend down to start the difficult part: Execution. We at MFS Africa are truly excited by what lays ahead of us and we look forward to playing our part so that smallholder farmers and their children get the better lives they deserve.
