The role of digital technology in the agri-SME finance space has greatly expanded over the past years, with new realms of application emerging, new technologies, innovative business models and new types of partnerships. How has the outbreak of COVID-19 affected this landscape? Have new needs, constraints, and opportunities emerged for digital innovators and solution providers in agri-SME finance, whether due to the pandemic or to policy and other measures taken to contain it? The webinar will explore these questions with specific reference to the experience of some leading practitioners and innovators in the field.

Speakers

Michael Hamp, Lead Regional Technical Specialist Rural Finance, Markets and Enterprises in Asia and the Pacific, IFAD (Moderator)
Michael Hamp worked for the Federal Ministries of Food, Agriculture and Forestry and of Economic Cooperation and Development. He became staff member of IFAD in Rome, in November 2007. The Rural Finance Unit managed by him includes two specialized subteams: the multi-donor funded Financing Facility for Remittances, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management, merged with the Weather Risk Management team. Since October 2018, he has taken the technical responsibility for Rural Finance, Markets and Enterprise Development in Asia and South Pacific.

Arindom Datta, Executive Director and Head of Rural & Development Banking/Advisory, Rabo India Securities Pvt. Ltd
Arindom Datta has been working for Rabobank for the last 14 years and has over 28 years of experience in Rural Finance, Cooperative, Microfinance and Agribusiness banking. Arindom is responsible for the sustainability banking initiatives on knowledge, risk management and business development. He also oversees the Rabo Foundation projects in blended finance, technology/innovation and access to finance in the agriculture sector. Arindom is further passionate about following the Agtech developments and its significance for small holder farmers. He previously worked with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, IDBI Bank and CARE.

Martin Quensel, COO and Co-Founder, Centrifuge
Martin started his career at SAP in the mid-90s as a developer and architect, where he built payment infrastructure, supplier collaboration, and procurement solutions. In the new century, he moved on to co-founding several successful startups, the latest before Centrifuge being Taulia, the leading bank agnostic supplier financing network. Taulia provided in the last year $30bn of funding to its network of 2 million suppliers in around 160 countries. His expertise lies in Finance, Payments, Supply Chain Management and Financing, Purchase-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash as well as Supplier Management, and how to decentralize it.

Quan Le, CEO and Founder, Binkabi
Quan Le has over 20-year experience in high finance, technology and commodities. He grew up in Vietnam and was educated in Vietnam and Australia. Quan spent over 10 years in Hanoi, Sydney and London, advising global financial services groups in complex financial products and strategy. In 2011, Quan founded growmoreX, an agriculture technology firm bringing proven crop know-how from Asia to Africa. Binkabi was born out of this unique confluence of real-life experiences and the need of commodity supply chain players in emerging markets. Quan is the mastermind behind Binkabi’s decentralised commodity exchange and Barter Block platform, based on its tokenisation protocol. Quan holds master’s degree in applied finance and still walks the fields of Africa and Asia.

Nik Kamarun, Senior Policy Manager SME Finance, Alliance for Financial Inclusion
Nik Kamarun is an SME Finance Policy Manager at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the world leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. AFI serves more than hundred member institutions across 89 countries. He also serves as one of the technical members for Islamic Finance Services Board (IFSB), responsible for the Technical Note on Financial Inclusion and Islamic Finance. Previously, he held the office of Deputy Director for International Cooperation Division at SME Corp. Malaysia and gained his demand-side experience working on SME policy, specifically financing MSME and the underserved market in Malaysia. Earlier, he worked as an accountant for seven years in a regional developmental agency.

Resource materials
Webinar recording