Citi Perspectives Spring 2020

52 | Treasury and Trade Solutions Using payments to further financial inclusion Financial inclusion is positioned prominently as an enabler of many SDGs and is featured as a target in eight of the 17 goals, including SDG 1 on eradicating poverty; SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and economic empowerment of women; SDG 8 on promoting economic growth and jobs; SDG 9 on supporting industry, innovation, and infrastructure; and SDG 10 on reducing inequality. Financial inclusivity is therefore a key objective for many corporates and public sector entities active in Africa. Citi has used its payment and finance capabilities to help a number of organizations to reach specific demographics as part of their SDG objectives. For instance, Citi and the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KDTA) have worked together to offer quicker, more reliable payments to 600,000 small-scale tea farmers. In the past, KDTA used a multi-bank payment process, which took days to get funds to farmers. Citi has integrated and automated the process allowing KTDA to pay its farmers at the click of a button within minutes. In addition, through an inclusive finance program, Citi provides finance to KTDA’s fully-owned microfinance institution to expand access to affordable financial services directly to smallholder farmers. Such initiatives aim to improve financial stability and economic opportunity for Kenyan tea farmers. A similar Citi project involves the One Acre Fund, a non-profit social enterprise, which provides an estimated 925,000 smallholder farming families in Sub-Saharan Africa with the financing and training they need to succeed. Working with One Acre Fund, Citi created customized mobile banking services with fast and secure payments and access to credit to buy seeds and fertilizer. Loans can be repaid in small amounts on a daily basis using M-Pesa mobile money, improving convenience for farmers. Citi integrated mobile wallet payments into the One Acre Fund’s enterprise resource planning system, streamlining its payments activity. Most recently, Citi has structured inclusive finance solutions to One Acre Fund to enable it to import inputs such as fertilizer in bulk for their farmers. One Acre Fund’s results are impressive: it typically increases farmer’s income by more than 50%; and 97% of loans are fully repaid. 3 Multinationals, leading domestic corporates and the public sector, including governments, central banks, non-governmental organizations and development banks, need support to implement policies that help them achieve their sustainability targets.