Heifer International led $1 M raised by Nigeria’s Hello Tractor for PAYG tractor financing project

Hello Tractor, a Nigerian tractor-booking website, has received $1 million in funding from Heifer International to provide loans for tractor purchases that may be repaid with money generated by leasing the tractors to local farmers.

Hello Tractor has launched a monitoring gadget and software that enables farmers and tractor owners to book linked vehicles directly from their phones. Farmers now have access to an essential service that was previously inaccessible, while fleet owners see a fleet optimization potential that also reduces fuel theft and fraud. Over 500,000 small farmers in Africa are served, with over 3,000 tractors and combine owners.

Heifer International, which assists farmers and local food producers to boost local economies and establish sustainable livelihoods that give a decent wage, has now contributed $1 million to the project. The money will go toward a new initiative called “Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Tractor Financing for Increased Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria,” which has already helped farmers in the Nigerian states of Nasarrawa, Abuja, and Enugu buy tractors.

“We developed the PAYG programme to make tractor ownership – and the reliable income these machines can bring – a reality for entrepreneurs who find it impossible to get credit through normal channels. We look at the revenue tractor owners can generate, not how much collateral they can pledge,” said Jehiel Oliver, founder and CEO of Hello Tractor.

Oliver said that partnering with Heifer “enables us to extend innovative financing to people who were previously considered ‘unbankable,’ while increasing access to technology that has the potential to improve the incomes of millions of smallholder farmers across Africa”.

The PAYG approach, according to Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president of Heifer International’s Africa Programs, offered finance for businesses who wanted to generate employment by capitalising on the need for tractor services on African farms but lacked traditional forms of collateral.

“It’s a way to unlock capital for youth who have strong business skills that can help transform African agriculture but are often overlooked by private equity investors,” Ifedi said.