Cropin & KUSCCO enable smart loan management for smallholder farmers
To unlock financial inclusion for Kenya’s rural farmers, KUSCCO partnered with Cropin to digitize credit assessment and lending for agricultural co-operatives. The goal: build a transparent, tech-enabled ecosystem where loans are accurately underwritten, risks are managed efficiently, and farmers receive the support they need to thrive.
Client background
KUSCCO serves as the umbrella organization for Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOs) in Kenya. It supports thousands of co-operatives that provide financial services to underserved and low-income communities, especially farmers.
KUSCCO’s collaboration with Cropin aimed to transform traditional lending practices into an agile, data-smart system, improving farmer access to credit and SACCO performance.
The challenge
The agri-credit sector faced deep-rooted inefficiencies:
- Manual loan origination and underwriting made credit access slow and restrictive
- Poor visibility into field activities and loan utilization reduced accountability
- Ineffective data collection hindered creditworthiness assessment
- Farmers struggled with low engagement and limited digital literacy
- Lack of visibility on crop outcomes led to delays in loan recovery and high defaults
The ecosystem urgently required a smarter way to connect financial data with real-time farm performance.
The solution
Cropin rolled out a full-stack digital solution designed for agri-lending:
- Remote farm monitoring via satellite imagery and IoT devices
- Integration of predictive modeling and AI/ML tools for risk profiling
- Collection of real-time insights on crop health, harvest cycles, and land use
- Localized advisories and training through mobile apps and SMS
- Dashboards and tools for SACCOs to track fund usage and reduce delinquencies
The platform also supported multi-language capabilities to boost adoption and engagement.
Impact
- 1,200 smallholder farmers accessed improved financial services
- Significant reduction in loan processing time and manual paperwork
- Enhanced ability to assess creditworthiness using farm-level data
- Improved visibility into on-ground farming activities post-loan disbursal
- Enabled more accurate harvest forecasting, aiding timely loan recovery
- Scaled a pilot that now informs broader strategies for agri-finance digitization in Kenya
This collaboration brought SACCOs closer to their members and empowered farmers to unlock their agricultural potential with timely credit.
