Remember our conundrum around what to call savings? We’re going to calling it “advance payments” instead.
From our meetings last week with commune mayors, village chiefs and village assistants, we found a name for our layaway savings program that is at once intuitive and relatable: advance payments. The idea of “paying in advance” is something that farmers think is more approachable and doable than saving.
Our farmers will make the advance payments by purchasing scratch cards:
The scratch card on the right is the back of an Orange Airtime card – it’s how the majority of people in Mali and in most developing countries pay for cell phone airtime. They buy a card of a certain value, scratch off the code and send an SMS with the code to get the value of that card.
Our advance payment system will mirror the way everyone buys airtime. After farmers register with us by telling us some personal details and their planting goals for next year, they can buy myAgro planting cards to make their advance payments towards myAgro planting packages. People will buy a myAgro card of a certain value, send us an SMS with the secret code on the back along with their customer ID and we will record their payment in our database.
We’ll be able to track customer payments over time and their progress towards their goals.
The other benefit of selling scratch cards as opposed to just collecting “saving payments” is that we turn the passive act of saving (not spending) into something more active – purchasing a card towards their planting goals.
Besides all of that, the cards are fun, motivating and inspirational:
