Phema Agri

If selected as the winner of Elevate Prize, we (at Phema Agri) plan to scale our Phema Market platform to reach 1000 women micro-enteprises by the end of 2021 and 3000 women micro-enteprises by 2022. Our solution makes it possible for these micro-enteprises to source products cheaper, delivered to their places of business and on credit to help women scale their businesses/enterprises. By winning this challenge we will be able to link ensure that access to great quality sourced agriculture products is made cheaper, available (delivered) and access to these goods on credit enabling us to create financial track record and enable access to financial services is made available to the unstructured retail economy and micro-enterprises in Tanzania. Over 90% of these enterprises are comprised of youth and women in Tanzania. We will use the funds to increase our sales target, increase staff to manage sales and procurement of products, purchase of trucks to be used for delivery of said products and to ease our cashflow as goods are sold on credit to our clients.

My name is Daniella Kwayu. I am a financial economist based out of Tanzania and the Founder and CEO of Phema Agri. We are an agri-tech company whose goal is to leverage technology to de-risk agriculture value chains to help smallholder farmers produce more, create sustainable market linkages via our marketplace platform (Phema Market), access finance and other value add services like insurance, capacity building and etc.

At Phema Agri we have 2 solutions: Phema Agri platform (Agri financing platform) and Phema Market platform (Last mile delivery solution).

Phema Market is a marketplace for the informal micro businesses (women-run) to access locally sourced agriculture products from smallholder farmer groups. The platform currently has over 100 women micro-enterprises (locally known as Mama Lishe) who access get access to smallholder farmers sourced agriculture products delivered to their businesses on credit to support and scale their business operations. 

At Phema Agri our goal is to reach and support 3000 Mama Lishe's micro-enterprises by 2022. This is inline with our vision to build a prosperous and sustainable food ecosystems in Africa connecting smallholder farmers production to local informal business economy and providing micro-credit facilities to scale and ease their business operation.

Street vending is a form of informal business where they sale goods to the public. Approximately about 1 million street vendors operate in Dar es Salaam, which is the largest city in East Africa and the fifth largest in Africa with over 6million population. Street vending is an informal business activity mostly undertaken by the people who are less skilled, with low capital and cannot secure job in the formal sectors. 

Approximately 20,000 street food vendors operate in Dar es Salaam. About 90% of the street food vendors are women who are between 20 and 45 years old, 50% of them are married with children and just have primary education. 

Mama lishe's mostly sell food which are rich in carbohydrates such as grains, protein such as (meat, fish, and eggs), and fat such as deep-fried food. They face challenges such as cost of production, access to financial services and lack of insurance for their business. 

The main goal of Phema Market is to provide a marketplace where Mama Lishe can access good quality product at an affordable price sourced directly from smallholder farmers (eliminating middle men), to improve access to financial services (goods sold on credit) and improving customer satisfaction. 

At the moment Mama Lishe take on the task of sourcing products themselves in at the market everyday before they go to their workstation and commence cooking for their clients. They therefore source products at retail costs which is more expensive and hence this squeezes their profit margins. These women also cannot access financial services e.g.loans, working capital facilities because they have no financial track record that is recognised by financial institutions.

Through Phema Market, Mama Lishe's are able to source great quality products at an affordable price (e.g. Our rice is sold to them at 15% less than the market price they normally source), we are also able to deliver these products to their work station reducing (convenience) and they are able to get these products on credit (they pay as sell each day). Via our platform we are then able to create a financial track-record based on their payment history that they can leverage to access financial support from banks.

Phema Market leverages the data we collect to help them also get access to finance, health insurance and help to increase their sales via the platform marketing their operations.

Mama lishe mostly sell food which are rich in carbohydrates such as grains, protein such as (meat, fish, and eggs), and fat such as deep-fried food. Due to consumer preferences, cost of ingredients, and lack of nutritional and cooking knowledge, micronutrient rich foods such as vegetables and fruits are rarely sold. Mama lishe mostly operate near transportation hubs, construction sites, markets, and schools. Due to their locations, they face a lot of challenges such as harassment, harmful inhalation of smoking charcoal, and high operation cost. The government has been able to establish different strategies to support and improving street vendors such as providing them with special ID cards (Machinga Identification Cards), which enables them to conduct their business without disturbance from local authorities. Despite all the effort still they face challenges such as cost of production, access to financial services and lack of insurance for their business. 

Phema Agri is focused in raising the economic and social footprint of these women and their families. By scaling their businesses we are increasing their financial footprint, profit margins, sustaining their businesses, connecting them to health insurance services. The goal is to thrive NOT just survive. Phema Agri is that partner in life.