[00:00:00] Grace Njoroge: Hey, beautiful people. Indeed, that is one of my biggest pleasure, is always when I went to my [00:00:06] Sharon Idahosa: own farm. So, I think it is important to first understand what a healthy relationship with food is, for us to know what it is not. Not trying. I can relate, I can relate. Selfish. So, you could be your own farmer for years. [00:00:18] Sharon Idahosa: Who knows? [00:00:21] Grace Njoroge: Trust, trust me when I tell you there will always be challenges. There will always be risks. [00:00:26] Sharon Idahosa: Seems like we have a lot in common. Welcome to the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. And of course, it's your favorite girl, Sharon De La Rosa. Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. [00:00:46] Sharon Idahosa: My name is Sharon Idahosa and I am your host. Today I'm excited to bring another episode, Your Way, still on the AgriFinance series, here on the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. Joining me [00:01:00] today is one of Mexico's finest, Grace Njoroge. Hopefully I got that correctly. She is the technical director of programs. [00:01:09] Sharon Idahosa: And she will be discussing the impact of digital finance in the agriculture sector. Now they have been actively supporting smallholder farmers, you know, to easily get access to finance and we are here to get more details about it and ensure that. Those that are looking out for finance, especially women can really benefit from this. [00:01:28] Sharon Idahosa: So please guys, stay tuned and get the best out of this episode. Thank you for joining the show today. How are you doing Grace? [00:01:35] Grace Njoroge: Thank you for having me Sharon. I am doing very well. Thank you. Um, thank you for having me on the show and I'm looking forward to the discussion. [00:01:44] Sharon Idahosa: Great. Great. So tell us, how has it been so far working in, in this space? [00:01:49] Sharon Idahosa: Great. I know many people do not like, uh, or many of us that got into this space, we didn't really study agriculture or it wasn't, uh, it wasn't something we planned, [00:02:00] but then again, we found out Celsia maybe because we wanted to, we saw a problem and wanted to solve it. So I want to know what actually got you to this space. [00:02:08] Sharon Idahosa: direction while you're working in agriculture and agri finance as well. So please do share if you can. Thank you. [00:02:15] Grace Njoroge: Thank you. Thanks Sharon. So, um, I always, um, say for those who know my story is I, I got into the Um, digital space, the agricultural space. Um, um, by fluke, I studied, um, I studied, I studied bachelor's of business administration for my undergrad. [00:02:34] Grace Njoroge: Um, and I remember I was in a public university. So, um, I remember we still have the career fairs where, you know, most of the institutions that used to come for the career fairs were, um, financial institutions, the banks, the insurance companies. Some of the consultancy companies, the audit companies, etc. [00:02:51] Grace Njoroge: And so when I was graduating, I really was looking forward to working for, um, you know, that kind of institution and my, my dream did come true. I [00:03:00] joined one of the leading financial institutions, uh, banks here in Kenya. Um, and when I joined I was, you know, starry-eyed. I was very looking forward to it. Um, I got some money from my grandmother to, you know, buy a couple of, um, suits, um, you know, the, um, nice power suits because I, I thought I'd be walking in the banking hall in my power suit, in my high heels, um, you know, serving customers. [00:03:23] Grace Njoroge: 'cause this is the image we had of, um, bank stuff, um, when we were young. But then, um, shocker me when I joined, um, there was this new department that had been opened in the bank, um, the microfinance department.