Felix Kamassah, founding father of Maphlix in Ghana, which provides KFC and exports to Europe.
We spotlight 5 entrepreneurs unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential, from working with small-scale farmers in Zambia to develop crops like cowpea and groundnuts, to exporting hibiscus flowers from Nigeria.
1. Zambia: $10m firm proves small farms may be huge enterprise
Agriculture in Africa is dominated by hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers who domesticate modest parcels of land. Smallholder farming on the continent is usually synonymous with low yields, restricted use of high quality seeds and fertilisers, minimal mechanisation, and normal hardship and poverty. But, one firm, Good Nature Agro (GNA), has tapped into the latent potential of Africa’s smallholder sector, establishing a enterprise with $10 million in income by collaborating with farmers in Zambia.
At its core, GNA contracts over 20,000 small-scale farmers to develop legume seeds and commodities – similar to cowpea, soya bean, and groundnuts – after which purchases these merchandise from the farmers to promote at a revenue. Nonetheless, GNA’s built-in enterprise mannequin extends far past easy commerce. It gives farmers with loans to purchase high-quality seeds and different agricultural inputs, presents steady farming assist by means of non-public extension brokers, and delivers monetary and digital literacy coaching. GNA can be concerned in financing property for farmers, starting from agricultural tools to cellphones.
The smallholders are each the corporate’s suppliers and clients. “We knew that farmers wanted high quality inputs [and] they wanted financing so as to have the ability to entry these inputs. They wanted technical assist all year long to be able to maximise what got here out. After which they wanted a assured market – they wanted sureties, like farmers anyplace on this planet. And so we constructed a enterprise mannequin round fulfilling all of these wants,” explains GNA’s co-founder and CEO Carl Jensen. Read more
2. From LinkedIn result in Nigerian export success
Timi Oke secured the primary consumer for his fledgling Nigerian export buying and selling enterprise by means of LinkedIn. In 2012, whereas working a nine-to-five job at a financial institution within the UK, the Nigerian-born Oke determined to comply with the recommendation of an import-export dealer he had grow to be acquainted with.
“I had at all times been eager about agriculture and buying and selling from a younger age. Even whereas I used to be working on the financial institution, I might analysis completely different agricultural merchandise that could possibly be viable for commerce,” he says.
The dealer suggested Oke to attend as many commerce festivals as doable and really helpful just a few trade teams on LinkedIn to affix. “For about six to 12 months, I used to be always on these teams, asking questions, eliciting responses after which contacting these people straight. Ultimately an importer from Mexico requested me if I may provide 5 containers of dried hibiscus flowers.”
Oke took a profession break, not formally quitting simply but, and requested his brother and a superb buddy to affix him within the newly registered firm referred to as AgroEknor. It was a scramble to ship that first order. The companions crowdfunded and used their very own cash to lift the mandatory capital to purchase the hibiscus flowers from middlemen, who sourced them from small-scale farmers in northern Nigeria.
The cargo was ultimately dispatched. Oke nonetheless remembers the day the primary cost for 60 tonnes of dried hibiscus was transferred into the corporate’s account. “It was a celebration. I gave discover on the financial institution and settled completely in Nigeria to do that full-time,” he says. Read more
3. Ghana: Aspect hustle turns into sizeable farming enterprise
In 2012, Felix Kamassah labored as an economist in Ghana’s banking sector whereas dabbling in farming on the facet. He realized from his aunt, who raised him, that rising meals can at all times be a part of one’s life, no matter one’s day job. She, for instance, was a nurse but in addition grew her personal greens.
Together with his spouse as his accomplice, he first planted cassava and maize on a chunk of land within the Volta area, close to the southeastern border with Togo. The enterprise quickly expanded to incorporate varied different crops, pushed by native demand. In 2013, Kamassah resigned from his job to ascertain Maphlix Belief.
The corporate has grown from supplying just a few native outlets in Ghana to changing into a thriving producer and exporter of over 27 completely different greens, tubers, and fruits. It employs over 150 everlasting workers, and when harvesting is in full swing, one other 80 each day informal labourers are introduced on board. Maphlix Belief counts Shoprite and KFC as its principal home clients and exports over 90% of its produce to markets such because the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UAE. Read more
4. Taking advantage of Rwanda’s avocado and chilli export potential
Entrepreneur Seun Rasheed, founder and CEO of SOUK Farms, is capitalising on Rwanda’s supreme circumstances for rising and exporting avocados, chillies, and beans.
Rasheed hails from a farming household in Nigeria however moved to the UK in his early teenagers. His dad and mom keep agricultural enterprise pursuits in Nigeria. The inspiration to begin SOUK Farms in Rwanda got here throughout a vacation in April 2019, which unexpectedly became a enterprise feasibility examine.
“I fell in love with the nation… it’s a very simple nation to do enterprise in. It took us six hours to register the corporate… and by the following day we had our checking account open,” says Rasheed.
“By way of the local weather, it’s good for horticulture crops,” Rasheed notes. “With the correct irrigation set up, you may farm… and provide your clients with produce all by means of the 12 months.” Read more
5. Entrepreneur goals to develop Uganda’s share of the superfood moringa market
Uganda-based Raintree Farms, established in 2012, specialises within the manufacturing and processing of natural moringa, a crop famend for its well being advantages. The corporate, based by Teddy Ruge, cultivates moringa by itself land and likewise sources it from small-scale farmers. Its major shoppers are dietary complement corporations within the US and EU, which use Raintree’s moringa powder to make tablets, power bars, and smoothie mixes.
Raintree has additionally launched a consumer-focused moringa oil magnificence model referred to as Qwezi Magnificence. “The margins from exporting a commodity like [moringa] oil are very skinny, however should you go a number of steps up by way of worth addition, you’re instantly capable of multiply your profitability by a number of elements. It additionally protects the enterprise from the shocks of worldwide export by multiplying the shopper base infinitely,” Ruge explains. Read more