Robina & HK - what do you think about this Digifarm

[RV Pundit]

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https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2019/07/digifarm-to-outpace-m-pesa-in-five-years-safaricom/

[Nefertiti]

Digifarm is an OK innovation. So it addresses the capital problem in agric - a fintech in short. You know the real problem with farming is outdated products and low productivity. Moving new and old farmers onto lucrative hitec farming is work - training, extension services - besides the capital. It comes down to the same heavy work needed to build the ecosystem. M-Pesa is a horizontal consumer fintech. This takes on the farming vertical - need for lots of relevant talent from the sector. I expect the target is hitec farming projects ala Israel or the Netherlands... agribusiness. Execution is everything.

[Nefertiti]

It seems to cut across the value-chain from seeds to online marketplace. Looks like some stuff are in the works yet.

https://www.mezzanineware.com/digifarm

I'm told that the 1M number is app downloads from PlayStore   Daily active users is 20K... not sure they are all farmers or aspiring. They have a Digifarm department dedicated so it seems execution might go well.

[Nefertiti]

Safaricom could easily break out of telco and spin into Digifarms and all sorts. They don't need to compete with IBM or Microsoft or Huawei but compliment them. Africa has big hitec gaps to be filled. Like in conversational AI - while it works so well for English or Chinese or German - you will find little if anything for Africa. The Swahili corpus is half-baked at best. There are no language corpora for Sheng, or Dholuo or any native languages. Afrikaan, Somali, Xhosa - all those major languages with some traction. So as a company or a data scientist you know you can use Safaricom AI libraries with unique features. ICT4D has not been so easy for mzungu to crack.

[RV Pundit]

Yes - they are serious about this - with 7M farmers in Kenya alone - and possibly 50M in East Africa - this could be game-changer.

[Nefertiti]

They have some other chat-Mpesa combo app called Zwuup! - in beta. Looks like an attempt at WhatsApp-Libra combo.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=safaricom.alpha.bonga&hl=en

[RV Pundit]

Those ideas of digital currency - block chain- won't work - in real world - anytime soon. Those should remain in some incubation labs.Safaricom should focus on solving existing problems with appropriate tech.

They have some other chat-Mpesa combo app called Zwuup! - in beta. Looks like an attempt at WhatsApp-Libra combo.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=safaricom.alpha.bonga&hl=en

[Nefertiti]

Zwuup! ain't a crypto - just a social-pay like WeChat. Which make sense cause people are social and they sambaza or spend cash for a reason - kid tuition, medical, wedding, chama, etc. Not sure you can open an online duka on it - the generic business pages on Facebook or Instagram are really boring and un-imaginative. Such are the hitec gaps opportunities for local apps. But I saw this Zwuup! app has "wallets" and stuff - which can be used by chama or wedding committee or such social stuff. This was quite long coming - Equity EazzyBank beat them to it. Cash scarcely moves without a documentable reason - which can give them lots of intel for other products. Basically I think the UX should be uniform and unique for a customer. Thru mySafaricomApp a customer should have access to literally all the services. Integration - but say personalized by customer data. AI has solved the seamless customer experience puzzle UX has been trying to solve for a decade. It moronic to have "customer journey" - as most UX designers live in that old box - for 30M customers - too diverse - even if you segment into socio-economics or regions or whatever. Too much straightjacket full of assumptions. But with AI it's bam! - hope that's not grandiose to ask of a top company in SSA.

Those ideas of digital currency - block chain- won't work - in real world - anytime soon. Those should remain in some incubation labs.Safaricom should focus on solving existing problems with appropriate tech.

They have some other chat-Mpesa combo app called Zwuup! - in beta. Looks like an attempt at WhatsApp-Libra combo.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=safaricom.alpha.bonga&hl=en

[hk]

https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2019/07/digifarm-to-outpace-m-pesa-in-five-years-safaricom/

I don't know about out outpacing M-pesa, which metrics? It's a commendable attempt to streamline sourcing and financing of inputs. I hope they can use the app to monitor soil, water, plant tissue to increase overall yields while reducing waste and cost of production. On the marketplace front, twiga foods is ahead  https://twiga.ke/  .