Financing Affordable Trucks

Our innovative, award-winning initiative, launched in partnership with the International Finance Corporation and Société Ivoirienne de Banque (SIB), provides a credit facility which allows cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire to lease cocoa collection trucks.

“Doni Doni” means “step by step” in the Dioula language. Through the scheme, farmer organizations that have taken part in our Coop Academy can get new trucks through a three-year leasing deal, which also includes insurance. Participating cooperatives each pay 10% upfront and then put 10F (West African Francs) for every kilo of cocoa they deliver to Cargill into a savings fund, which covers their monthly lease fees. The interest rates they pay are significantly lower than any others commercially available.

Flexible finance of this kind enables cooperatives to save time and money by running new trucks – so they get a long-term return on their investment and move a step closer towards financial independence.

In its first two years, the scheme funded 139 trucks through 56 farmer organizations, representing more than 66,000 farmers.

Highlights

Recognized by Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) with a prestigious FiE Innovation Award for “best sustainability innovation”.

139 trucks funded, benefiting 66,000 farmers. 

Looking ahead

Based on the success of Doni Doni, a second credit facility that provides cooperatives with approved, high-quality crop protection products is proving equally as successful and we are now looking to implement the scheme in Ghana, Cameroon and Indonesia.

"The costs that we have saved by not having to repair old trucks will help us pay for the new trucks. We won’t even be aware that we’re spending money for those trucks… We will be repaying the trucks step by step through the sales of our cocoa beans."
Sawadogo Moussa, Chairperson of Cooperative CINPA