Agricultural technology company, ThriveAgric, in collaboration with the global nonprofit organization Heifer International, recently hosted a breakfast meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, to mark the official launch of the company’s AYuTe (Agriculture, Youth, and Technology) project.
This initiative aims to empower 125,000 smallholder farmers with financial inclusion access, further reinforcing the company’s mission to build the largest network of profitable farmers across Africa and ensure food security on the continent.
Over the next twelve months, ThriveAgric and its technical partners will facilitate the opening of bank accounts for 125,000 smallholder farmers across eight northern states, including Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi.
This will provide them with access to debit cards and various other financial services. The project is a result of winning the 2022 edition of the annual Agriculture, Youth, and Technology (AYuTe) Africa Challenge, an initiative by Heifer International.
In addition to employing over 200 young people to execute this project, ThriveAgric will also provide 1,000 Point of Sale (POS) devices to selected Nigerian youths, boosting their income and providing additional support to their families.
According to the EFInA Access to Financial Services Survey 2020, only 51% of Nigerian adults use formal financial services, with women being more excluded than men.
This report particularly highlights large gaps in financial access, especially in northern Nigeria. ThriveAgric will approach this project with a gender lens, ensuring that at least 40% of the targeted beneficiaries in the eight northern states, including smallholder farmers, POS operators, and project employees, are women.
Speaking on the company’s vision behind the AYuTe project, Ayodeji Arikawe, co-founder at ThriveAgric, said: “At ThriveAgric, our driving force has always been to empower smallholder farmers for a dignified livelihood.
By connecting smallholder farmers to the formal financial economy, we are positioning them for better access to finance, credit, and digital services and introducing them to the formal economy, which has numerous other benefits in the long run.
We are excited about this initiative we’re undertaking with Heifer International through the AYuTe Africa Challenge and the long-term impact of this strategic partnership with VISA towards the creation of job opportunities and financial and social inclusion.
Our unwavering commitment to positively impact smallholder farmers and their immediate communities across Africa will become even more evident through this project as we power towards our goal of developing the largest network of profitable farmers in Africa.”
Last year, ThriveAgric emerged as the West African winner of the annual AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving a $1 million grant prize as a reward.
Organised by Heifer International, the Agriculture Youth Technology (AYuTe) challenge was set up to support young entrepreneurs working to scale food security on the continent by developing and deploying affordable tech solutions to impact smallholder farmers.
In addition to the cash grants, Heifer International also deploys a team of expert advisers and accomplished business veterans to support AYuTe Africa Champions as they translate this funding into business expansion strategies.
According to the Country Director of Heifer International, Rufus Idris, “inadequate access to financial services is a key barrier limiting smallholder farmers from improving farming practices, adopting innovation, and increasing their production outputs.
We are excited about this opportunity to not only invest in ThriveAgric’s solutions but to scale up an agritech innovation that confronts financial inclusion challenges facing smallholder farmers in Nigeria.”
Access to funding remains one of the biggest challenges confronting smallholder farmers in Africa. According to WillAgri, only 10% of farmers have access to credit in rural areas across Sub-Saharan Africa.
By facilitating account opening, distribution of bank cards, and setting up POS operators in rural northern communities, ThriveAgric will increase access to formal financial services through digital tools, thereby driving financial inclusion.
This is a key promoter of access to finance and markets for more smallholder farmers. Key partnerships with companies like Visa to reach the most financially excluded groups, many of whom are smallholder farmers, demonstrate how ThriveAgric will leverage strategic partnerships to attain the company’s ambition of providing $500 million in credit to 10 million smallholder farmers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya by 2027.
Commenting on the innovative move, Ayodeji Alabi, Fintech Lead at Visa Inc. West Africa, said, “We wish ThriveAgric well with this initiative to onboard over 125,000 farmers in the financial inclusion drive in Nigeria.
With ThriveAgric as winners of the Visa Everywhere Initiative in 2022, they have our full support in this to facilitate payment solutions towards ensuring that underserved communities are banked.”
The AYuTe Project is yet another step in the right direction for ThriveAgric as the company accelerates towards its goal of building an Africa that feeds itself.
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