Enterprise Funding of Agri-business


Enterprises in the Agri-business sector usually have large farms that require a range of inputs. Procurement and supply of these inputs can prove challenging in developing countries because the enterprise relies on entrusting individuals to be honest and transparent in their dealings. Both employees and third party suppliers can on occasion act fraudulently against the best interest of the enterprise.

We hope through this paper to explore some options enterprises may explore to avoid the pitfalls of fraudulent activities by either or both employees and third party vendors when funding enterprise CAPEX and OPEX. The scheme we propose the enterprise could adopt seeks to:

  • Reduce the attempts at fraud usually associated with the procurement and distribution of inputs needed in the everyday operations of farms in an agri-business. Inputs such as diesel, and fertilizers and seeds for example.

  • Improve the quality of products harvested, and made available for processing and/or sale.

This scheme aims to:

  • Supply a fraud free system of enterprises, in developing countries, funding their agri-business operations. (Enterprises running this scheme may find it easier to procure venture capital, debt or equity funding from 3rd parties);

  • Provide hardware needed to track farm produce development; and

  • Track inputs supplied for farm operations throughout the produce life cycle.

ENFORCE - Challenges with Commercial Bank Lending - Customer Management (2)

Customer Management - Loan origination (2)

Loan origination covers everything that happens between a customer submitting their loan application and the funds being disbursed or the loan being declined. So that’s quite a chunk of work. In the past, it used to take a staff of originators. Now their work is done by intelligent algorithms. And the steps to automate here are:

ENFORCE - Challenges with Commercial Bank Lending - Customer Management (1)

Customer Management - the onboarding process - (1)

Challenge

The first step in any loan decision or new relationship is collecting the financial and other necessary information from the prospect or customer. Today, this task can be labor-intensive and difficult to complete. Often it is dominated by form filling, electronic or printed documents, and a physical customer file. The more often the information contained in these electronic and paper documents is entered and rekeyed into the lender’s systems, the greater the possibility of inaccurate data being recorded.

In a recent poll conducted by Moody’s Analytics, the question was asked “What is your biggest challenge in initiating the loan process?,” to which 56% of bankers surveyed answered the manual collection of data and subsequent back and forth with the client.

Alt Approach

Automation - Automation can mitigate the inconsistency and delays of manually collecting financial data and other mandatory customer information. Customer-facing web-based portals and application program interfaces (APIs) can facilitate digital onboarding of new prospect and existing customer data straight to the lender’s loan origination platform.


ENFORCE - Challenges with Commercial Bank Lending

OVERVIEW OF COMMERCIAL LENDING

In 2015, McKinsey and Company reported that 45% of business activities could be automated (Chui et al 2015). In a more recent Moody’s Analytics webinar hosted by the American Bankers Association (Choi and Robinson 2019), most bankers reported that they do not focus on core lending activities such as spending quality time with prospects and clients, performing in-depth risk assessments, developing mitigation strategies and obtaining approvals(Table 11.1).


ENFORCE - Automated Bank Lending

Our Approach to Commercial Bank Lending -

Lending Tech as a Service is a specific set of functional modules and integrations that we set up, deploy and manage correctly for our clientele.

Loan application, risk evaluation, credit decisioning, origination, underwriting, servicing, collection, reporting – all of that sounds complex only for as long as you haven’t taken an advanced lending automation service for a test-drive.


ENFORCE - Small Business Banking

Enhancing the customer journey

Banking customers have come to expect an efficient digital experience so they can focus on their own business demands. The customer onboarding experience not only needs to be smooth, it needs to comply with the most stringent security, governance and regulatory requirements of the banking industry. What’s more, banks and financial service providers are under pressure to innovate to stay ahead of the competition — as well as future-proof operations against another pandemic-type business disruption.

MLS offers a highly intuitive online customer experience for onboarding, servicing and offboarding — all while meeting and/or exceeding the security, governance and compliance standards of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions. As pioneers of secure file-sharing technology, MLS focuses on enabling and securing the flow of information — no matter the volume of files, the number of collaborators or the location worldwide.



ENFORCE - Why Banks use Managed Services for Loan Automation

Loan Automation simplifies the lending process

The decision to use Loan Automation simplifies many aspects of your lending activities.

Consider the investments you may have already made or may be considering to make to support loan servicing needs:

  • Procure and install IT infrastructure to support the service;

  • Hire and train loan servicing agents;

  • Implement processes to accept payments via mail, email, and mobile/online; and

  • Establish expertise in the areas of delinquency and default management, and recovery and remarketing of returned vehicles.

That’s a big commitment of capital and ongoing operations expense. An alternative approach to meeting these needs is using Loan Automation by MLS. With all of the required infrastructure, staff, and experience, MLS can deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively.


A Case Study of the challenges around processing and sorting customer applications for products

Reason to automate customer application for products

Some high value products can only be purchased by certain customers. These customers need to have the infrastructure, human resources and funding necessary to receive, ship and process the products. Sifting through the paper work required to be submitted by customers seeking to purchase such high value products needs to be methodical, but at the same time it is important the customer is not put-off by the process. The process must therefore be easy for the customer to walk through whilst enabling the seller to conduct a comprehensive due diligence on the customers capabilities.

IN ONE SUCH CASE WE SUPPORTED A CLIENT IN AUTOMATING THE ENTIRE PROCESS INVOLVED IN PROCESSING CUSTOMER APPLICATION FOR PRODUCTS.

THIS RESULTED IN THE SELLER EFFICIENTLY AND QUICKLY IDENTIFYING PRODUCT READY CUSTOMERS WHILST HANDHOLDING THOSE CUSTOMERS NOT READY AS YET TO RECEIVE PRODUCTS.

BELOW IS A CASE STUDY SHOWING HOW WE HELPED AN ENERGY COMPANY TO SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS OF PROCESSING CUSTOMER APPLICATION FOR PRODUCTS.

A Case Study around the challenges of Commercial Banks processing Corporate Loans

Corporate Customers view point of Loan Applications in Sub-Sahara Africa

We all know what its like applying for a bank loan. Corporate loan applications are the worst. KYC / Due Diligence appears to be unending. It appears as you pass through one hurdle your banker is on the phone about another hurdle that is yet to be crossed. Its a never ending cycle that seems to have no end.

WE CHALLENGE BANKS TO SIMPLIFY THE ENTIRE PROCESS WHILST MAINTAINING THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF COMPLIANCE.

BELOW IS A CASESTUDY SHOWING HOW WE HELPED A BANK TO SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS OF PROCESSING CORPORATE LOANS.