Who it is for

Everyone a farming season depends on.

A smallholder's loan rests on more than the borrower: on the group, the supplier who delivers inputs, the buyer who takes the crop, and the institutions that lend, cover and guarantee. Each has an entry below, and each talks to the same consultant, Mwikila, LitFin Intelligence's AI Senior Agriculture & Finance Consultant.

Every entry separates what works today from what is being built. The second is not live.

What works today

One working service, open to anyone who needs it.

Credit appraisal, underwriting and risk analysis for agricultural lending, on an individual loan, a group loan or a whole portfolio. For a farmer, a group or an agribusiness, the same work prepares the case to the standard a lender expects.

It reads the whole file, including pages that arrived as photographs, and names the pages it could not read
Every finding can show what it rests on
In English or Swahili, one language at a time
A person always makes the decision, and LitFin Intelligence never lends, holds money, insures or guarantees

The people who grow

The smallholder farmer

You farm your own plot, alone or in a group.

Today

Bring your case, on your own or through your group. We prepare it to a lender's standard: what you grow, what it costs, what it should earn and when it can be repaid. You take it to the lender you choose.

When the full system is in place

Mwikila tells you in your own language whether the plan is viable, what a lender will ask and what is missing. Your farm is set up as a business, with a production plan, a budget built from your plot and records, and a repayment calendar that follows the crop calendar. A village-based agronomist visits the plot, and you learn whether to stand alone or join a group.

Bring your case

The person who wants to become a farmer

You have no plot yet, or no first season behind you.

Today

With a plan and somewhere to farm, bring it and we prepare the case for a lender. Starting from nothing, there is no service for you yet. Tell us what you want to do.

When the full system is in place

A way in: what you can bring to a chain, a lease or allocation agreement drafted for you and the landholder to sign, a group to join or form, and a first plan a lender can read. You are shown where a chain near you needs what you can offer.

Tell us what you want to farm

The groups they form

Most farmers are financed through a group, and each form meets a lender differently. Once the full system is in place, every group gets the same help: members organised and structured, the group's value chain identified and set up, the supplier, off-taker, cover and lender connected, a village-based agronomist on the ground, and training in agriculture, financing and group lending.

AMCOS

Agricultural marketing cooperative society: members sell their crop together, and often buy inputs together.

Today

Bring the society's case for a season: the members, the crop, the inputs and the buyer. We prepare it as a group loan case to a lender's standard.

When the full system is in place

A lender sees one borrower, the society, with every member visible beneath it, and the chain the society sells into is set out for the lender to read.

Bring your society's case

SACCOS

Savings and credit cooperative society: members save together and lend to one another. A SACCOS is a lender in its own right.

Today

As a lender, you can use the working service on your own agricultural loans, loan by loan or across the whole portfolio. If the society itself borrows for a season, we prepare that case too.

When the full system is in place

You lend into chains you can see: each member's place in the chain, the buyer and the cover behind the loan, and the season as it runs. The society's own documents are drafted to the standard a larger lender expects when it lends to you.

Talk to us about your loans

VICOBA

Village community bank: a savings group that saves and lends among its own members, by rules it sets itself.

Today

If your group wants finance for farming, bring the case and we prepare it to a lender's standard. Your savings and your lending stay yours: we hold no money and do not replace your meeting or your rules.

When the full system is in place

Your record of saving becomes evidence a lender can read, and the group is structured for the purpose its members choose.

Bring your group's case

Other producer groups

Farmer associations, outgrower groups, youth and women's groups, and groups not yet formed.

Today

A group with a crop, a plan and a buyer in mind can bring its case now, and we prepare it as a group loan case. For a group that is not yet organised, no service exists yet. Tell us where you are.

When the full system is in place

The group is formed around its members' purpose, needs, goals and capabilities. LitFin Intelligence helps draft the constitution and agreements; the members take the drafts to an advocate of their choice, sign and upload them, and a village-based agronomist confirms on the ground that the members are real and the signing happened. The steps are set out on How it works.

Bring your group's case

The people who supply and buy

A grower's loan rests on inputs arriving before planting and on a buyer at harvest, so both belong in the case.

Input suppliers (agro-dealers)

You sell seed, fertiliser, crop protection, feed or equipment to farmers.

Today

Bring the case for your own business and we prepare it for a lender. Nothing else works for a supplier yet.

When the full system is in place

Orders with a lender behind them. You join a chain as its supplier under a supply agreement that states quantities, dates and terms, and your stock and delivery records become something a lender can rely on. Small suppliers can be grouped to fill an order none could fill alone. You are assessed for the supplier's role, not in general.

Tell us what you supply

The off-taker

You commit before planting to take the crop at an agreed price, volume and date: a processor, a miller, an exporter or an institution.

Today

Nothing works for an off-taker yet. If your supply depends on growers who cannot get finance, talk to us: that is the chain we are building for.

When the full system is in place

Growers who are financed, verified and coached, and volume you can plan on. Your commitment is written as an off-take agreement with price, volume and date, and becomes part of what the growers' loan rests on. You follow the season: what was planted, what was checked and what is on its way.

Tell us about your supply

The buyer

You buy at market when the crop is ready, with no promise made before planting: a trader, a shop, a kitchen, a group of households.

Today

Nothing works for a buyer yet. Tell us what you buy, how much and how often.

When the full system is in place

A purchase agreement that states price, volume and date. Small buyers can be grouped into one buyer a grower can plan on, so a village that produces a little, often, meets buyers who buy a little, often.

Tell us what you buy

Service providers

Transport, storage, mechanisation and veterinary services.

Today

Your own business can bring a case now. The role you would play in a chain is not live yet.

When the full system is in place

A service agreement with the people you serve, and grouping where one provider is too small for the job.

Tell us what you provide

Small agribusinesses

A processor, an aggregator, a farm run as a company, or another small business in agriculture.

Today

Bring your case. We prepare the business plan, the financial model and the lender application to a lender's standard, and you take them to the lender you choose.

When the full system is in place

The same case, kept current as the season runs, and a place in the chains you buy from or sell into.

Bring your case

The institutions that finance, cover and guarantee

LitFin Intelligence works to the rules of each of these licensed institutions. It does not structure them and does not decide for them.

Lenders

Banks and microfinance institutions that lend to agriculture, or want to.

Today

The service above, applied to your own agricultural loans: a file your officers can question line by line, in English or Swahili, with every finding showing what it rests on.

When the full system is in place

A whole chain you can see, with evidence for every link: the growers, the supplier, the off-taker, the cover and the guarantee. Each participant has been assessed for the role they play, and what they said has been confirmed on the ground. You follow the season as it runs, so a problem is seen while there is still time to act.

See what a lender gets today

Leasing providers

You finance equipment and other assets: a tractor, a pump, a cold room, a processing line.

Today

A lease application on an agricultural file can be appraised now. Nothing built specifically for leasing is live yet.

When the full system is in place

You see the chain the asset will work in: who will use it, for whom, and what stands behind the payments. You follow the season, and the use of the asset, as it runs.

Tell us about your leases

Guarantors

You stand behind part of a loan, loan by loan or across a portfolio.

Today

Risk analysis on the files your guarantee stands behind: what each loan rests on, and where the evidence is thin. For a portfolio guarantee, a portfolio review against the criteria you agreed.

When the full system is in place

A whole chain you can see before you commit cover to it, and for as long as the cover runs. You can tell where your guarantee changes the outcome and where the chain would stand without it.

See what a guarantor gets today

Insurers

You cover the perils that are too large for one season to bear alone: weather, a crop, livestock.

Today

Risk analysis on an agricultural file is available now. Nothing built specifically for an insurer is live yet.

When the full system is in place

The risk you are asked to cover, with what was confirmed on the ground behind it: what was planted, where and when. Your terms become part of the chain everyone sees.

See what an insurer gets today

The people on the ground

The village-based agronomist

Trained in agriculture and based where the farmers are. You advise farmers and confirm, on the ground, what a chain rests on.

Today

This role is not live yet: no agronomist is in the field. If you are an agronomist, or about to graduate as one, tell us where you are based.

When the full system is in place

Whatever a participant tells or hands you goes to LitFin Intelligence, which analyses it and tells you how to proceed. Your job is to compare that analysis with what is on the plot and with what people say, and to bring back what you find. You start a chain's evaluation and you end it, carrying the judgement of two careers into every field.

Tell us where you are based

Those who already serve farmers

Agricultural technology and data providers

You already serve farmers and cooperatives: records, advice, weather, soil, payments or market information.

Today

No connection is live. If what you hold could be evidence in a farmer's case, talk to us while this is being designed.

When the full system is in place

What you already know about a farmer or a cooperative becomes evidence in a chain, with that participant's agreement, and reaches the lender, the guarantor and the insurer who need it. You keep your product and your customers.

Tell us what you hold

Partners

Technology and delivery partners, development programmes and institutions that want this connecting layer to exist.

Today

There is nothing to integrate with yet. We want partners now, while the layer is being designed: tell us what you build or run.

When the full system is in place

A layer your own work can run on: chains that are visible, participants who have been assessed for their role, and a season that can be followed, in Tanzania first and then across East Africa.

Partner with us

Common to every reader

Everyone on the chain sees the full chain.

Every participant sees the whole chain they are part of, live, from the start of the season to settlement: who is in it, what each has committed to, each step completed, each check done, each flag raised and settled, and what every status rests on.

Being built

What everyone sees

For every participant and every step: done, missing, checked or flagged, and what that status rests on.

What stays private

A participant's private details, such as financial history. The others see that an item is done or missing, not what is in it.

Who sees the details

Only the parties whose job is to assess them, such as the lender, who have signed data and privacy agreements to do so.

Who stays in control

The participant. They can open their details to a chosen party, or to everyone on the chain, if they wish.

Do you see yourself here?

Whether what you need works today or not yet, talk to us. If a role is missing from this page, tell us.

Talk to us How it works