LendXS, the digital credit services platform of Financial Access, has established a partnership with eProd Solutions. The partnership will allow LendXS to integrate its robust credit scoring solution for eProd’s specialized agribusiness enterprise resource management (ERP) solutions.

The integration of the LendXS credit scoring system with eProd is a significant development, which allows agribusinesses, aggregators, and food processors to better respond to the requirements of their markets and address the management challenges they face while sourcing from large numbers of small-scale suppliers. Adding reliable credit scoring data to eProd’s comprehensive set of supply chain management solutions will enable agri SMEs to support their smallholder supply base to obtain the financing they need to invest and grow their business.

Muthoni Karimi, Chief Operations Officer at LendXS says: “The LendXS and eProd partnership will facilitate more efficient agriculture value chain management, help to stabilize markets, and will include more farmers into the supply chain. There is a big shift to agribusiness supply chain actors and SMEs supporting smallholder farmers because they either provide inputs to the farmers or buy directly from them. This dependency is exacerbated by more pressure on food supply caused by climate change and increasing demand for food by a growing global population”.

Most agri coops, traders and other supply chain actors depend on the farmer’s ability to supply them to meet their needs and therefore their commitment to create the required conditions for smallholders to produce is important. “This partnership combines the LendXS and eProd services in such a way that agribusinesses will be able to more efficiently manage its transaction data captured by eProd and through LendXS use these data to facilitate the mobilization of finance at lower risk”, says Muthoni Karimi.

eProd Chief Executive Officer Jan Willem van Casteren says the market is ripe for better integrated credit scorecards that will help agribusinesses deepen relationships and value to smallholder farmers. “Agribusinesses often play the role of financier to their farmers in the form of inputs or working capital. The sooner they are able to focus on their core businesses and link farmers directly to financial institutions, the quicker these companies will be able to focus attention on quality produce as they link into larger and even global markets.”