Why
Mezzanine aims to establish and maintain meaningful partnerships to enable productive societies across the African continent. Through eVoucher, Mezzanine serves as the digital enabler of increased access to much-needed agricultural inputs for smallholder farmers in South Africa and Kenya.
What
eVoucher facilitates the cashless distribution of vouchers to smallholder and subsistence farmers to assist them in accessing high quality agricultural inputs from a credible network of agro-dealers or disbursement channels.
How does eVoucher work?
01. Registration & admin
Beneficiary & merchant registration and administration
02. Configure eligibility business rules
Beneficiary eligibility business rules
03. Communicate with beneficiaries
Issue voucher via SMS
04. Redemption
By participating merchant
05. Reimbursement
Trusted B2B Settlement
Who
Ministries of agriculture, NGOs and commercial organisations use eVoucher to enable rapid, configurable and auditable disbursement of value to end beneficiaries. Our partners and beneficiaries to date include The Solidarity Fund; Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; South Africa Department of Agriculture, LandReform and Rural Development, Oxfam International just to name a few.
Beneficiaries
e.g. Subsistence Farmers
Access
Does not require an economic identity to be eligible. Can use any device on any network. No cost.
Traceability
Identity is linked to the voucher code from start to finish.
Validation
Individual is validated against eligibility criteria.
Funders
e.g. Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
Control
Set the rules. Register beneficiaries and service points. Own the data. Engage with beneficiaries beyond vouchers.
Configurable
Segment database vs. need, geography, demographics, etc. Set scheduling. Set redemption riles: full vs. partial etc.
SLA
Guaranteed service uptime; user training, adoption management, reporting.
Redeemers
e.g. Local Agro Dealers
Payment
System settlers with service point in real or near real time using mobile money (MNO agnostic) or manual push model.
No Hardware
No need for expensive hardware, POS or card type readers. Smartphone only with native application on board.
Foot Traffic
Redemption drives traffic (partial vouchers even more) with additive buying by beneficiary.
Our Partners
Where
eVoucher usage has expanded beyond the boundaries of South Africa, and demonstrates high user adoption in Kenya where we have successfully supported over 2.2 million smallholder farmers since 2015.
Impact
eVoucher adoption and use in South Africa, Zambia and Kenya demonstrates the scalability of the platform’s service delivery.
In this way, Mezzanine facilitates the delivery of subsidised agricultural input transactions from South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) and Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, for example, to identified smallholder farmers through online vouchering systems.
eVoucher is multi-dimensional in its capacity to empower beneficiaries (subsistence farmers), funders and redeemers. Farmers do not need smartphones to access voucher codes nor do they need to have bank accounts.
With eVoucher, Mezzanine meets beneficiaries where they’re at and empowers African smallholder farmers.
Current Usage
In the 2022/2023 financial year alone, the South African Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) Department reported support of 157 000 subsistence farmers through eVoucher input vouchers via the Presidential Stimulus Initiative. In this way, eVoucher has proven to serve as a catalyst for increased public-private partnerships to ensure food security in South Africa.
In May 2023, the eVoucher vouchering system digitally enabled the distribution of 10 billion KES farmer payments in Kenya via their Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. This translates to 3 million bags redeemed by farmers in need in Kenya, through facilitation by eVoucher.
Covid-19 Reflection
Since 2015, Mezzanine’s eVoucher solution has been utilised to support over 500,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries’ e-subsidy programme.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, eVoucher was used to support over 55 000 smallholder farmers in South Africa through the Solidarity Fund’s food security input voucher programme. Smallholders farmers were able to access much needed agricultural inputs via electronic vouchers in all 9 provinces. eVoucher was also used to support the Presidential Economic Stimulus (PES) input voucher programme by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) to disburse agricultural inputs to 47 173 households and 235 803 individuals in South Africa.
eVoucher has enabled these households to resume and expand production after the disruptions of COVID-19, strengthening economic resilience and food security.
Other Agriculture Products From Mezzanine
eVuna
The eVuna platform connects farmers to information, agricultural inputs, credit and buyers, subsequently facilitating increased productivity, revenue and resilience.
eVuna
Connected farmer is an enterprise mobile enabled solution which ultimately connects Agri Businesses and smallholder farmers by digitising the existing value chain.
