Future of mobile money for cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana
Cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produce close to 70% of the world’s cocoa, and they do it with mobile phones in their pockets.
In August 2015, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) contracted SIA to design and execute a market research study in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to determine the demand for digital financial services in the cocoa value chain with an emphasis on farmer financial inclusion and the potential of mobile money to enhance farmers’ livelihoods. The research, conducted through surveys and segmented focus groups with cocoa farmers and key informant interviews with service providers and other value chain stakeholders, illuminates enormous potential for greater mobile money use by the cocoa farming population in both countries, where competitive mobile money offerings, conducive regulatory environments, and expanding agent networks are already in place. Yet major adoption challenges persist.
The primary research delivers data and analysis of the awareness, use, and interest in mobile money of 522 cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – 220 farmers in six villages in the Sud Comoe region of Côte d’Ivoire and 302 farmers in eight villages in the western region of Ghana. It adds to evidence from research on mobile money and cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire by IFC and The MasterCard Foundation and USAID in Indonesia, as well as builds on WCF’s 2011-2013 CocoaLink project, led by The Hershey Company and championed by the Ghanaian government.