Equity Group Holdings has signed a comprehensive agreement with American farm equipment manufacturer John Deere on Wednesday to provide tractors, financing and training to farmers across Kenya.
The deal aims to advance Equity’s “Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan,” which focuses on mechanizing agriculture and supporting small-scale farmers in the region with technology, training and access to markets. Under the two-year agreement, Equity Bank will offer financial products to customers to purchase John Deere farming equipment, which will be provided by authorized dealer MASCOR’s locations in Kenya.
Equity Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi said the partnership provides an opportunity for Kenyan farmers to increase production to supply global food chains that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“With American expertise and African ingenuity, hard work and natural resources, coupled with access to affordable financing and the network of infrastructure that Equity can offer the partnership, in collaboration with MASCOR dealerships in the region, the milestone of our signing today can pave the way for a cohesive US-AFRICA private sector engagement framework built on trust and mutual interests in the market,” Mwangi said at the signing ceremony in Chicago.
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The agreement was signed during a visit to the U.S. by a Kenyan delegation led by Mwangi and U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman to attract American investment.
John Deere, Equity and MASCOR plan to conduct joint training and marketing campaigns to educate farmers on maximizing productivity through use of mechanized farming equipment. The program aims to support profitability for small-scale farmers by improving revenues, reducing losses from manual farming methods, and cutting production costs.
“In John Deere we have a significant partner of like-minded interest to support scaling and mechanization for small-scale farmers in Kenya,” Mwangi said. “This partnership aligns to the Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan, which seeks to foster a more coordinated, connected and capacitated primary supply chains to drive higher productivity.”
The agreement comes amid rising global food insecurity and inflation. Mechanizing agriculture is seen as a key strategy for boosting food production in developing nations like Kenya. Officials said the partnership demonstrates the potential for public-private collaborations between the U.S. and Africa to drive economic growth.
