The development of SMS delivery and the associated costs is also remarkable. Before the Rapid Results Campaign, KENAFF had 100,000 SMS available per month, which were purchased at 0.8 Kenya Shillings each. In the meantime, the number of users has multiplied and the demand for new SMS is consequently and constantly increasing. To manage the costs, KENAFF initially capped the SMS units per month at 400,000. Then it entered into talks with the platform operator to renegotiate the SMS costs. KENAFF can now buy SMS for 0.5 Kenya Shillings – a saving of 37%! Should the association even buy more than 1,000,000 SMS from the provider in one purchase, an amount of 0.4 KES is possible.
Due to this development, it is now up to KENAFF to find a sustainable and long-term financing for the system in 2021. Here, KENAFF is closely supported by the AHA. It is conceivable to use this system for targeted marketing, i.e. customers could use KENAFF to target their advertising for a product to farmers in a certain district. In this way, KENAFF could earn a margin through the SMS costs incurred. Likewise, KENAFF could gain new partners who participate financially in the system through the large number of registered users. This year, KENAFF can cover the SMS and maintenance costs of the system through the EU/IFAD project FO4ACP.
KENAFF has set itself the goal of registering 500,000 farmers in the system by the end of the year, in order to be able to provide them with information on the following topics: Covid-19, weather, market data and technical farming issues.
More about KENAFF’s USSD system can be found here: