Project: AgriPay Business Model Assessment
Client: Zanaco
Date:May 2021 – October 2021
The Problem
In 2021, Zanaco faced challenges in efficiently rolling out their new flagship digital payment platform, AgriPay. This platform was designed for commodity aggregators and off-takers who struggled with paying and tracking bulk money transfers to rural-based farmers. These inefficiencies created barriers in managing payments and building trust with farmers.
The Solution
Agova was contracted to enhance AgriPay’s development and deployment. The team provided data analytics support to the AgriPay team, crafted a compelling value proposition for both off-takers and farmers, and leveraged historical financial data and market research to develop growth projections for the platform. AgriPay, owned by the Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco), now serves 7,500 small-scale farmers nationwide.
Results
- Conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 16 farmers and 3 aggregator site officers using Human-Centred Design tools to identify key pain points and refine user experience improvements for AgriPay.
- Redesigned the customer onboarding model to follow a holistic value chain approach, significantly reducing onboarding logistics costs and enabling faster outreach to more farmers.
- Developed financial models projecting AgriPay’s 50% annual growth and its capacity to reach 25,000 farmers by 2024.
- Proposed a restructuring of the AgriPay management team’s roles and responsibilities, enhancing reporting efficiency, accountability, and overall product development and implementation.
