KCB Bank Kenya, KCB Foundation, Mastercard and Heifer International Kenya have launched the Farmer Visibility Project, a nine month pilot designed to bring digital payments and formal financial records to 30,000 smallholder dairy farmers across Kenya.
The initiative was unveiled in Nairobi and marks one of the most ambitious KCB Mastercard dairy farmers Kenya collaborations to date, aiming to replace cash transactions and informal record keeping with a verifiable digital trail.
The Problem the Pilot Is Solving
Most dairy farmers in Kenya still sell milk and buy inputs using cash, with records kept by hand or not kept at all.
Without a documented income history, these farmers struggle to qualify for loans, input financing or other formal financial products, even when their businesses are stable and productive.
The Farmer Visibility Project is built to close that gap by turning everyday farm transactions into data that banks can actually use.
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How the Digital Payments Model Works
At the center of this digital payments smallholder farmers Kenya effort is Mastercard’s Community Pass platform, which brings Farm Pass capabilities to the dairy value chain.
The technology will create digital farmer profiles and track milk deliveries, payments, savings and input purchases as they happen.
Every recorded transaction adds to a farmer’s financial history, the same kind of history that formal lenders typically require before extending credit.
Mastercard is funding Heifer International as the lead implementing partner, responsible for coordinating delivery on the ground.
KCB Foundation and KCB Bank Kenya are participating as subgrantees, with KCB Bank handling account opening, card issuance and financial products designed around farmers’ seasonal income cycles.
Heifer International’s Role on the Ground
The Heifer International Kenya dairy pilot draws on the organization’s long running work with smallholder farmers and cooperatives, giving the project an implementation partner already embedded in rural dairy communities.
Wairimu Munyinyi Wahome, Country Director of Heifer International Kenya, said the project will focus on reaching 30,000 farmers over the nine month period, with room to scale further if it proves successful.
That grassroots presence matters, since much of the pilot’s success will depend on farmer adoption in areas where digital access and financial literacy still vary widely.
Why the Farmer Visibility Project Matters
Speaking at the launch, KCB Foundation Managing Director Mendi Njonjo said sustainable community development starts by creating opportunities for people to participate meaningfully in the economy, adding that the project combines digital innovation with practical agricultural support to help farmers build resilient businesses.
The Farmer Visibility Project Kenya 2026 launch reflects a broader push across East Africa to bring smallholder farmers into formal financial systems, an approach that has already shown results in mobile money and micro savings programs.
If the pilot works as intended, it could give farmers faster payments, fewer disputes over milk deliveries, and a real path to input financing and credit that was previously out of reach.
It could also strengthen transparency inside dairy cooperatives, reducing the payment delays that often push farmers toward informal, less reliable markets.
What Comes Next
The nine month pilot period will be closely watched by partners across Kenya’s agricultural finance sector. Lessons drawn from it are expected to inform wider efforts to modernize dairy payments, strengthen cooperative systems, and expand digital financial services across the country.
If the model scales successfully, it could become a blueprint for digitizing income and payment records well beyond the dairy sector, reaching other agricultural value chains where cash transactions and informal record keeping remain the norm.
For now, the focus stays on the 30,000 farmers enrolled in the pilot, whose transaction histories over the coming months will determine whether digital visibility can genuinely translate into greater access to formal finance.
