A loan helped to double incomes for smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda with advance payments during COVID-19.


Nucafe's story

In Uganda, small coffee farmers lack access to international markets and financing to grow. They are forced to sell unprocessed coffee to middlemen at less than 5% of the final product retail value. Over 10 million coffee farmers are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty that is passed from one generation to another.

NUCAFE is a coffee farmer organization with a mission to multiply farmer’s income. NUCAFE allows farmers to retain ownership of their coffee through the entire value chain and leverage NUCAFE’s processing facilities to add value to their beans. NUCAFE equips farmers with the ability to sell their coffee at a much higher price and access international markets in Europe and Asia, where their specialty coffee is served at hotels and cafes. The model can increase farmer’s income by 250%.

NUCAFE employs over 70 staff and counts over 200 member cooperatives, with direct impact on 1.5 million Ugandan coffee farmers.

Like many businesses around the world, NUCAFE is unable to operate normally as a result of the crisis. As such, NUCAFE is requesting flexible working capital to address their liquidity needs.This loan of $100,000 will help them weather this crisis and provide advance payments to smallholder farmers.

This is the third Kiva loan to NUCAFE. Kiva has also granted a deferment on their current outstanding loan. View NUCAFE’s last two loans here and here


This loan is special because:

This loan with help NUCAFE support 1.5million smallholder farmers in Uganda



Loan details


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details