By leveraging partnerships with farmers’ cooperatives and telecom operator MTN, in a recent pilot Advans Cote d’Ivoire achieved 100 percent on-time repayment and notably increased school attendance among borrowers’ children. This innovative work with cocoa farmers earned Advans Cote d’Ivoire the 2018 European Microfinance Award for inclusive finance through technology. Advans is trying to solve a liquidity problem with a promising new digital credit product.

In this CGAP Blog, the authors share how Advans’ education loan product. It has its origins in a free digital savings product that Advans and CGAP designed and launched in 2016. Recognizing that many users of the product suffer hardship due to the mismatch between their farming cashflows and timing of school expenses, the company decided to explore the possibility of offering education loans to qualified customers.