May 18, 2021 Abuja, NIGERIA—Through a $1.7 million co-investment from the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Development Hub, Adefunke Desh Nigeria (ADN), an agribusiness specializing in the cultivation and processing of grains, will embark on its expansionary drive to significantly scale its operations. This project will be instrumental in improving ADN’s competitiveness, in turn boosting the incomes of its partner smallholder farmers, increasing supplies of quality grains, and aligning well with the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative.

As a company suppling grain to Cadbury PLC, Nestlé PLC, Guinness Nigeria, and other specialized feed and food producers, ADN has a solid reputation for the high-quality standards it upholds. However, significant investment in the form of upgrades to its grain cleaning facility in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State, new equipment and machines, and more staff are needed to improve ADN’s operations, consistently clean grains to meet international standards, and fulfil orders from its growing client base. With the $1.7 million co-investment grant, awarded under the Trade Hub’s COVID-19 rapid response initiative, ADN can address these challenges and leverage its earlier planned investments.

“This co-investment partnership will give ADN the additional capital needed to meet the growing demand for high-quality grains resulting from the increased health consciousness of consumers, a growing Nigeria population, and significant reductions in grain production due to COVID-19 and insecurity throughout the country,” says Adeoluwa Adeshola, ADN’s Managing Director.

As a key part of the project, ADN will also directly support 3,000 new smallholder farmers in northwest Nigeria producing maize, soybean, and sorghum—foods widely consumed in Nigeria. The smallholders will be provided with training in improved agronomic and farm management practices. ADN will also purchase 17,000 metric tons of additional grains supplied by local aggregators and farmers within the project.

Assistance to the smallholders ties directly into assistance to ADN. As multinational partners pay premium prices for ADN’s quality grains made possible through an improved facility and enhanced operations, the company can purchase smallholders’ grains at more competitive prices.

Altogether, the co-investment grant will have a significant impact on ADN’s operations, suppliers, customers, and partners. Equally important, in line with other Trade Hub-backed initiatives, the project is expected to increase market-led job creation.

According to Adeshola, if ADN scales operations to 90 percent of its installed capacity with the coinvestment,
it can create at least 250 jobs (90 percent of which will be held by women and youth).

Additionally, at least five laborers earn daily income per hectare of land farmed to produce the grain
supplied to ADN. Therefore, cultivating 3,000 hectares of land will result in approximately 15,000 casual
labor jobs in addition to the 3,000 smallholder farmer jobs guaranteed as part of the project.

ADN’s success is expected to lead to increased private sector investment into Nigeria’s agricultural
sector.
“Ultimately, the project aims to institute a replicable model for other companies and private sector
investors that will improve food security, increase farmer incomes, and produce top quality/toxin-free
home-grown grains for consumers,” says Michael Clements, Chief of Party for the Trade Hub.
Adefunke Desh PR photo 1: Adefunke Desh will leverage part of the Trade Hub’s co-investment to
upgrade its grain cleaning equipment in Kaduna State.

Through the co-investment partnership, both Adefunke Desh and the Trade Hub will build on their work of supporting women working in the agricultural sector, including female rice farmers and distributors.

–End—
About the Trade Hub: The Trade Hub is a USAID-funded initiative to co-invest with the private sector to
generate new private investment, create new jobs, and increase the value of regional and international
exports in West Africa.
Adefunke Desh Nigeria: Adefunke Desh Nigeria is a leader in the Nigerian agribusiness space specializing
in the cultivation and processing of grains such as maize, sorghum, millet, and soybeans for local and
international consumers.
About USAID: The United States Agency for International Development is the lead U.S.
Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies
to realize their potential.
About Feed the Future: The Feed the Future initiative is the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food
security initiative. It works to give families and communities in some of the world’s poorest countries
the freedom and opportunity to lift themselves out of food insecurity and malnutrition.
For media inquiries, please contact:

Olga Balangala, InsiderPR
olga@beaninsider.com

(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you from InsiderPR . Agrigate Global takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)

The best route for Nigeria to reach its full potential in farming is for the private sector to get more involved, said the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters in Maiduguri, the new Country Representative of the agency, Fred Kafeero, said Nigeria has great potentials in agriculture but need the involvement of all stakeholders to achieve this. He delivered the remarks during the assessment of the UN food agency’s interventions in Borno State,

“Nigeria is a very important agricultural country. When you talk about agricultural potentials, you are talking about the potentials that there is in several sub-sectors of agriculture,” Kafeero said.

Due to the recent floods in Nigeria, farmers in the northern region of the African country have lost more than two million tons of rice, a quarter of the nation’s projected harvest.

Despite the heavy loss, the most populous country in Africa is so far upholding a year-long ban on rice imports to curb smuggling and boost local production.

Nigeria’s biggest rice producing state, Kebbi, had predicted 2.5 million tons this year. However, heavy September rains washed away two million tons.

Under the pilot phase of the Empowering African Youths (EMAY) project in Nigeria, Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP Africa) has joined hands with the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) to train youth in modern agriculture.

The 7-day long training session aims to empower African youths by facilitating their participation in the business of Agriculture, the National Accord reported. It should be noted here that in the first phase, 30 Nigerian youths have been selected from five states.

“Young leaders will be empowered with agronomy technical know-how and agricultural tools, such as mobile digital soil laboratories for soil testing and analysis,” Head Agronomy for OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Ltd., Donald Madukwe, said.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the country’s central bank to stop issuing foreign exchange for food and fertilizer imports as expanding Nigeria’s agriculture sector is a key pillar of his economic policy.

Last year, the president issued a similar order that the nominally-independent bank only partly followed.

But the recent directive will completely prohibit foreign currency for all imported food and fertilizer, the spokesman told Reuters.

Since his election in 2015, the 77-year-old leader has sought to cut foreign imports, particularly agricultural products.

The Nigerian government will inject over N600 billion as stimulus-response into the country’s agriculture sector, said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono.

The minister added the package would target small-scale farmers to ensure food security and sustainability.

He explained that the stimulus package would target farmers nationwide and expected to begin with an initial 2.4 million farmers.

To lessen the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on agriculture, the Nigerian government announced a new initiative – AFJP ( Agriculture for Food and Job Plan) under the Nigeria Economic and Sustainability Plan (NESP).

Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister Sabo Nanono launched the plan officially in Katsina State, saying the plan is in tandem with the three-pronged action plan of the ministry to deal with the impact of the ongoing crisis on Nigerian farming sector.

The project will mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and livelihoods of farmers by creating more access to food.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges hampering the attainment of food security in Africa’s most populous nation may deepen. Although Nigeria has relaxed some lockdown restrictions in recent weeks in an effort to revive the economy despite the rising number of cases, Africa’s most populous country’s farming sector has been adversely affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

From tightening of credit access to limited transport access, these constraints are having a ripple effect on food production and transportation, leading to an increase in food prices and limiting the population’s access to nutritious food.

Amid these gloomy times, it is pertinent to leverage technology to ensure that the farming sector is not further impacted by the distortions caused by COVID-19 and ‘FarmyApp’ is doing the same.

The application is an online market where farmers put their products and services for sale before the harvest date. It is projected that one-third of agricultural products in Nigeria perish before they get to the market due to the huge difference between the harvest time and the time taken for it to arrive at the market or the consumer.

Most of these products arrive at the market in bad conditions due to poor road network, packaging and handling. Most farmers who sell their products early in the mornings harvest their products in the evenings in order to meet up with their customers, which then makes them, use preservatives that not only increase the cost of production but also affect the market price of agricultural products.

“FarmyApp helps farmers sell their products at harvest by helping them market the farm products before availability and puts the farmer in control of both production and the price which creates a levelled ground for competition among the small, medium and large-scale farmers who can leverage the platform to sell their products,” FarmyApp CEO Abass Olaiye Ayotunde said.

“Selling agricultural products to the first buyer will not be the only aim but also to put distance from buyer to seller into consideration. Since one of our primary aims for the platform is to get agricultural products to the customers at the most affordable price in the shortest possible time, operations research and machine learning are being used to recommend based on last purchase and on distance,” Ayotunde added.

Many things have to be in place before agricultural products can be ready for consumption. These things require the help of skilled workers, chemicals, equipment, machines and human effort and this is why both the sale of agricultural outputs and inputs such as equipment, machinery and all other things that are required for efficient production of agricultural outputs on the farm is available on FarmyApp, according to the company.

One of the barriers for entry into the agricultural industry in the African country is the cost of buying equipment, availability of land and other inputs for production.

For youth, opportunities like this will encourage them to invest and to explore the agricultural industry, the company’s founder stated.

Soon, the app will also collaborate with research institutes, the government and private companies in order to train young school learners on the basics of agriculture and setting up successful farms in the 21st century and in the future we hope to create.

When asked about the future plans, the company’s CEO said that more innovations and solutions for the Nigerian agro-economic sector are developing and will be unveiled on this revolutionary platform in due time.

It is worth mentioning here that the company was co-founded by Abass Olaiya Ayotunde (CEO), Popoola Covenant Ifeoluwa and Afolabi Damilare.

Disclaimer: Informations provided here are for general awareness only and Agrigate Global does not endorse them in any way.

Nigeria’s Lagos State Government will establish an N10 billion project – Lagos Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (LACE) – to achieve 100 per cent food sufficiency by 2023.

According to a news report by Daily Trust, the project is planned for a 35 hectares piece of land in Igbonla, Epe under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N75 billion for the establishment of a Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF).

The NYIF would operate as a youth bank and will create a financial support base for innovative youths aged 18 to 35.

“This fund is meant to create a special window for accessing credit facilities and financing on the part of our youths that will help to fund their ideas, innovations, and also support their enterprise,” Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports Development, said.