Forest Capital acquires Kayvee Microfinance Bank

Forest Capital, the investment subsidiary of Farmforte Limited, has acquired Kayvee Microfinance Bank as part of its strategic move to create greater synergy between socio-economic empowerment, agriculture, and the finance sector.

Speaking on the acquisition, Osazuwa Osayi, Farmforte’s co-Chief Executive Officer, said: “This strategic acquisition demonstrates our commitment to continuously improve our portfolio and effect economically sustainable developments, primarily across the agri-value chain. Our multi-pronged enterprise growth strategy is ever-reliant on the financial and technological advancement of our growing 112,000 smallholder farmer network, which will be up to one million by the close of 2022. With a widely heralded generation of disruptive banking services, and wider sector focus on mobile-first, personalised banking, we are structuring a world-class and formidable agriculture services ecosystem via Forest Capital.”

Also speaking on the acquisition rationale, Managing Director, Forest Capital, Paul Okunaiya, said: “As Africa’s digital financial services sector grows exponentially in the next few years, this transaction underpins our desire for a necessary symbiosis between the unbanked and private entities pertaining to access, relevance, and ultimately trust. With about 350 million adults un-served by the financial services industry in sub-Saharan Africa, there is more emphasis on financial inclusion, and Forest is poised to provide much-needed solutions to individuals and corporates, from farmers to entrepreneurs, and industries at large.”

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According to him, Forest will bridge the access to requisite financing across the agriculture value chain for small to medium scale farmers, infrastructure and supply chain operations, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, last-mile delivery and Agric tech-driven startups.

A Tier-1 digital microfinance bank operating under the licence of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kayvee MFB leverages technology to provide savings and lending platforms to support
the CBN’s financial inclusion strategy.

Forest’s short term strategic diversification plans include a ramp-up of its investment advisory
services, the development of high yield portfolio investments, and the build-out of Forest Bank, a modern digital interface based on the rapidly evolving concept of application programming interface (API)-driven embedded finance.

“Forest will bridge the access to requisite financing across the agriculture value chain for small to medium scale farmers, infrastructure and supply chain operations, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, last-mile delivery and Ag. tech-driven startups,” he said.