Hamid Ayodeji
A Nigerian digital agriculture company, Farmcrowdy has disclosed that plans are underway to expand its operations in the country by increasing its capacity from 25000 farmers to over 50000.
The Chief Executive Officer, Farm Crowdy, Onyeka Akumah, who said this during the unveiling ceremony of its latest brand, Crowdyvest in Lagos, recently, pointed out that the company would be exploring opportunities in 17 States, as against the 13 States it currently operates in.
According to him, the firm would continue to engage more farmers so as to boost their production and get them market access which would provide better livelihood for the farmers.
Akumah explained, “Crowdyvest is an impact-driven platform that connects individuals to multiple sponsorship opportunities that are safe, trusted and secure.
“It is an exclusive-style platform that connects sponsors with sponsorship opportunities within the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including Agriculture and other impact-driven sectors.
“Crowdyvest was launched to foster a broader avenue for economic growth and build a system that would span across Nigeria and the rest of Africa,” he explained.
The Chief Executive Officer, during the event, pointed out that the launch would see a successful migration of all the existing sponsors under the Farmcrowdy platform to the Crowdyvest platform, without any need to create a fresh account, maintaining that new sponsors will also be able to sign up to a safe, secure and trusted platform for free.
He further explained, “Every sponsor will continue to safely sponsor farms on the Farmcrowdy platform as well as all other portfolio products and sponsorship opportunities to be launched via the Crowdyvest platform in the future.
“We have been able to successfully implement a business model in one of the most challenging sectors in the world, driving growth in agriculture.
“We are very happy about the policy and work we are doing at FarmCrowdy. Our market is now available locally; we are at the verge of exporting our products.
“The company can now translate the same impact and energy that it had used in building FarmCrowdy into other sectors and also impact the lives of other people in those sectors.
“In addition to the latest development, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive to reduce the importation of food into the country, is a clear demonstration that the present administration is ready to boost local food production.
“The directive by CBN to bring down the importation of goods into the country is a welcome development as it would continue to enhance locally produced agricultural commodities which is how they have mandated the banks to continue to lend more to farmers and more to agricultural institutions.
“If I am a rice producer in the country, my rice becomes premium because I know that not many people will be able to import rice like the way they do before and Nigerians will turn to locally produced rice as a way of consuming rice going forward.
“There is no need importing food products Nigeria has the competitive and comparative advantage of producing.
Also, the Managing Director, Farmcrowdy, Kenneth Obiajulu, said, “It has been an amazing opportunity to lead a brand like FarmGate Africa and achieving a great amount of traction in such a short period of time,” saying that the plan, “is now to consolidate on the traction from both Farmcrowdy and FarmGate Africa to build a more robust Farmcrowdy that can create more value points across the African agricultural value chain.”
