PRESS RELEASE FROM CELLULANT – KENYA

Achiever in Agriculture Award for Cellulant Nigeria’s CEO – Bolaji Akinboro 

Wednesday, 25 November 2015; Lagos, Nigeria – Cellulant’s co-founder and CEO of Cellulant Nigeria, Bolaji Akinboro will today (Wednesday, 25th November) receive the Achiever in Agriculture Award from the Central Committee of the Nigerian Agriculture Awards (NAA) for the company’s E-wallet technology – a digital platform that has transformed the lives of more than 14 million farmers in Nigeria. The ceremony will take place at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos during the Annual Award Dinner.

Cellulant, is Africa’s leading one-stop payments and digital commerce service company, with offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. They employ over 300 people, and reach 40 million customers Africa-wide.

Since its launch in 2011, Cellulant’s E-wallet has facilitated the distribution of over US$1 billion in fertilizer subsidies to farmers under the Growth Enhancement and Support (GES) programme, a component of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“Over and over again we have seen Africans, through various innovations, prove that the impossible is made possible when the needs of the consumers are at the centre of the solutions provided. GES is certainly a testimony to this. Delivery of a programme of this scale and at this speed is a first for Nigeria considering that the entire agro-dealer network had to be rebuilt from scratch”, says Mr Akinboro.

“It is an honour to receive this award recognising the hard work and contribution of Cellulant and those who worked tireless to see the programme come to fruition.” he added.

The GES programme has more than doubled the income of the farmers from US$700 to US$1,800 per annum per household, improving their living standards and moving them out of subsistence into self-sufficiency in three years.

Bolaji has spent most of his working life changing the lives of people and societies as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur in for profits and not for profits in Africa . He understands the African market very well and has spent time working in business development with reputable companies in the continent.

Some of his work includes working in Sales and Marketing at Procter & Gamble in Nigeria and setting up P&G in Ghana as its Country Director where he grew the business from scratch to a US$10million operation.

He was recruited by the World Bank through KPMG to head the Business Development Unit for its Africa Virtual University (AVU) project and was based in East Africa. It was during this time that he met his Kenyan partner, Ken Njoroge and together they founded Cellulant in 2004.

A Pharmacy graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, Bolaji holds a post-graduate certificate in management from Herriot Watt University in the United Kingdom. He is also an alumnus of the Oxford University Business Economics Programme.

In 2015, Bolaji was awarded by the Federal Government of Nigeria – Outstanding Contributor in the Development of Agriculture through Technology as well as Agriculture Innovator of the Year in Technology from Agrainnovate in 2014

The Nigerian Agriculture Awards (NAA) is an annual event oganised by Verdure Vision, publishers of AgroNigeria Magazine, Nigeria’s most authoritative agro-centre print and online publication with presence across all geo-political zones of the country. In 2015, Prominent Awardees who will be receiving awards alongside Mr Akinboro include four Nigerian State Governors, the Nigerian Central Bank Governor, prominent industrialist and investor, Alhaji Sani Dangote and Okomu Oil Palm Plc., among others.

Issued on behalf of Cellulant

by Yolanda Tavares Public Relations, Nairobi, Kenya

email:  yolanda@ytpr.co.ke  Contact: +254722511073

2015 AgrikExpo: Primlaks promotes ‘made in Nigeria’ foods

Primlaks Group, the pioneer producer of Individually Quick Frozen, IQF, fruits and vegetables in Nigeria, has again demonstrated its steadfast support for agriculture in Nigeria by exhibiting its innovative Sympli brand of convenience food at the 2015 FoodBext West Africa Exhibition in Lagos.

Sympli is the registered brand name of a range of IQF foods produced by Venus Processing and Packaging Limited, VPPL, which is part of the Primlaks Group.

The locally farmed, processed and packed Sympli products, which include yam fries, yam cubes, plantain dodo and plantain chips, are delivered in ready-to-cook state for frying, steaming or baking.

The Chairman of VPPL, Otunba Christopher Tugbobo said that the product was a proves that Nigeria is capable of doing new things in agriculture that can help reduce its dependence on oil and gas.

Tugbobo, a one-time Head of the Division of Agricultural Research in the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and a retired Permanent Secretary, described Sympli as a 100 per cer Nigerian product, stressing that it is produced locally by Nigerians for Nigerians and that it has created much needed employment, helped reduce post-harvest losses and gave Nigerians a home grown brand in the frozen food segment that could be proud of.

The Group Chairman of Primlaks, Mr. H. K. Ram, explained that Primlaks invested in Nigeria’s fi rst IQF production facility in order to tap into the country’s vast agricultural potential, particularly in light of growing concerns on unemployment and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

He described Sympli as Primlaks Group’s contribution to Nigeria’s drive for self-suffi ciency in value added food production and creation of additional sources of foreign exchange.

Lagos Produce Dealers lament lack of Storage Facilities

Tomatoes

A man cuts the good part of a rotten tomato in the dump of Buenos Aires biggest vegetable market Tuesday, May 21, 2002. A four-year-old economic downturn has become the worst recession in Argentine history.

 The jobless rate has soared to 20 percent, the peso has devalued more than 70 percent against the dollar, and more than one-third of the 36 million people now live in poverty. (AP Photo/Diego Giudice)

Agricultural produce dealers in Lagos state  have pleaded with the Federal government for the provision of storage facilities, to reduce waste of agriculture products and increase profits.

Chairman of the association, Mr. Ileyasu Azeez of the Amuwo Odofin branch in Lagos State, addressed the issue of storage saying that; “It will be counter-productive if at the end, farmers and sellers dispose of produce in a hurry, because of fear of the produce getting spoilt’. He reiterated that both farmers and traders would be better off if there were storage facilities for produce and users will be sure of getting fresh produce throughout the year.

As regards the imported solar powered storage system, which some businessmen introduced in the country, the chairman said it could only store 60 tonnes of produce. He also said that in spite of the equipment’s short lifespan of four years, it was costly and the members of the association could not afford it at N10 million per unit. He therefore appealed to research institutions in the country to assist with the provision of tropical storage facilities.

Azeez lamented that members of the association often sell their goods below the cost price for fear that they might get rotten. “It even takes longer than two days to transport produce like plantain, oranges and bananas from Okada, in Edo to Lagos markets. He appealed to the government to provide the facilities and allow installments

“It is only when products are available all year round that people can invest in processing them to add value to them,’’ He said.

Imo women farmers form groups, solicit for finance, inputs

Imo State Women Farmers

Imo State Women Farmers have organised themselves into groups for the purpose of engaging in collective farming, so as to foster comparative advantage.

Speaking with AgroNigeria, the leader of the group, Mrs. Omanze said the cost of labour has always been a big challenge for farmers in the rural areas; adding that the fruitless efforts of an individual farmer trying to plant variety of crops each season and ending up reaping little or nothing is also another issue. To them, it is better to work in groups.

 

She maintained that although, some of the members still work on their individual farms, most of them can now boast of increased harvests since they made the decision of collaborating. “The women are calling on the government at all levels, as well as foreign development partners, to assist them with finance, agricultural inputs and modern equipment to further enhance their farming activities,” she said.

 

Mrs. Amanze, however regretted the fact that some months ago, tractors were launched by the State Government, only to be benefited by big farmers, leaving small holder rural farmers, especially women totally out of the scheme. 

 

“Government policies on agriculture should be targeted towards helping the rural women farmers who are like the beast of burden in the society” she said. The women were of the view that the only down-to-earth aid from the government to farmers in Nigeria remains the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme. According to them, now that the programme has been halted this year, the smallholder farmers in   rural   communities across the nation are the worst hit.

 

The women farmers therefore pleaded with the present government to sustain the GES Scheme as it has impacted so much on their lives.

 

He therefore advised the federal and the state government, as well as the private sectors to clearly identify their roles in developing agriculture in the country; putting national interest at the back of their minds.

Int’l Potato Centre unveils Orange–Fleshed Sweet Potato’s potentials

Professor Ted Carey

International Potato Centre recently unveiled Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato’s potentials, rolling out two varieties of the produce – King J and Mothers Delight.

 

Sweet potato, a staple crop in Sub-Saharan Africa and in some parts of South America and Asia has become one of the most globally consumed crops today. The new technology known as orange–fleshed sweet-potato (OFSP), a veritable source of beta-carotene and vitamin ‘A’ is said to be capable of improving the health of the predominantly malnourished African mothers and children as well as galvanize increase in profit when cultivated. 

 

In the words of the project leader of the initiative, a Kumasi Ghanaian breeder, Professor Ted Carey, the project is targeted at improving the lives of millions of people in Africa. Countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina-Faso and Malawi have all been taking the OFSP advantages comparatively. He said that the CIP Development and Research has succeeded in involving a number of international organizations like IITA and FARA, just as the Nigeria government has also embraced its rainbow project.

 

Recently, at a sweet potato seed system and market linkage in Osogbo, the CIP project manager from Tamale, Ghana; Dr. Erna Abidin said; “Through diversified market, we are commercializing and expanding the OFSP initiative. We have made Africans realize through advocacy and sensitization that OFSP is a food and nutrition security crop and now, households, vine multipliers, researchers, governments and other stakeholders are joining us in repositioning OFSP as a profit generating crop”.

Explaining the nutritional advantages of the OFSP, the country project manager and M&E specialist Dr. Justus Manje said that the sweet potato new hybrid is full of essential vitamins which are in short supply in the daily dietary intakes. “Vitamin A deficiency is rampant in Africa and has contributed to high rates of blindness and diseases in pregnant women and children” he said.

Partnering with the CIP, the National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike (NRCRI), an institute with the mandate of conducting research on root and tuber crops in Nigeria has said it is still working on how to further improve the nutrient-laced OFSP and then roll out more varieties. The country’s agronomist CIP, Dr. Jude Njoku said that apart from having high yield, it is also disease resistant, adding that the variety was bred via a conventional means.

 

“We just established a root foundation which was flagged off two weeks ago at ARMTI in Ilorin and we have also sensitized multitudes at the IDP camp in Abuja.  I can assure you that after generating our data from the field trials, we shall release more varieties so that our vegetable farmers can reap bountifully from them”. 

KDSG to privatise abattoirs, send 7 butchers to Saudi Arabia on study tour

The Kaduna State Government on Monday said it was preparing the state abattoirs for privatisation and would send seven butchers on study tour in Saudi Arabia.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Manzo Maigari, who disclosed this to newsmen, said it was a resolution of the state executive council at its meeting in Kaduna.

Maigari said the privatisation of the abattoirs would commence after full consultations with all stakeholders.
“As you are aware, the governor has approved study trips to Saudi Arabia for seven leaders of the butchers association state-wide.

“They will go and see how meat slaughtering is mechanised and handled in an Islamic setting.“We want meat to be handled in a more Islamic way in the state,’’ the commissioner said.

According to him, when the seven butchers being sent abroad return, they will be consulted on the direction of the privatisation agenda, based on what they have seen and learnt in Saudi Arabia.

“We will encourage them to see if they can take over management of the abattoirs themselves, so that government will be left with the responsibility of regulation only.’’

Maigari said it was hoped that the study tour would be a pilot project that would open up the sector to private investors, create empowerment and generate employment in the state.

“We will standardise our meat to the global best practice standard,’’ he assured. The commissioner noted that the standard of hygiene at the abattoirs presently was poor, and needed to be upgraded.

He said the state government had already established an interim state meat compliance committee to ensure that meat is handled in a hygienic manner at the abattoirs.

Nigeria faces stiff challenge to boost agriculture sector

President Muhammadu Buhari

The pothole-ridden roads that connect Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, with Adeniyi Bunmi’s leafy farm in southwestern Ogun state are among the many challenges faced by the entrepreneur.

“You can’t even drive in to an average farm,” said Bunmi, arguing that access to his 150 hectare site, which was a dense forest until it was cleared by bulldozers six years ago, is good compared with other rural areas.
The poor transport infrastructure in Africa’s most populous nation is one of the major obstacles in the way of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aim of boosting agriculture and reducing the reliance on oil exports at a time of low crude prices.

The pockmarked route between Lagos and Bunmi’s farm alternates from tarmac to gravel and dirt tracks, making it hard to transport produce ranging from plantain to pineapples to clients in the city, a bumpy two-hour drive away.

But roads in the southwest are generally better than those in the north where the infrastructure is far worse.
Africa’s biggest economy and top energy producer has been hammered by low crude prices, since it relies on oil exports for around 70 percent of government revenues. Buhari, who took office in May, has said a strengthened agriculture sector would create jobs and reduce the reliance on costly food imports.

“The petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice,” he told an agrarian trade body three months after taking office in May. “We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many as want to go into agricultural ventures.”

But five months after Buhari took office, his cabinet is yet to be sworn in, leaving him without an agriculture minister to flesh out policy details.

A proposed $25 billion infrastructure fund to invest in much-needed modernisation of road, rail and power networks, announced by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday is still at the planning stage.

Nigeria has tens of millions of farmers, most of whom work on a subsistence basis and live on less than $2 a day, making the warehouses, electricity access and machinery needed to improve efficiency unattainable.

FOOD IMPORTS
The resulting inefficiency explains why Nigeria produces 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes annually of which 45 percent perish. The inability of farmers to feed a nation of 170 million people has led to an increasing reliance on imported food.

Nigeria is among the world’s largest importers of rice and the biggest buyer of U.S. wheat, while much of its own fertile land lies fallow.

In 2012 it imported 2.3 million tonnes of rice – a record high. Some 4.1 million tonnes of wheat was brought into Nigeria in the same year – nearly double the amount imported in 2000.

The rocketing food import bill, against a backdrop of a weakening naira and strong dollar, has contributed to consumer inflation rising to 9.4 percent year-on-year in September, its highest level since February 2013.

Buhari has referred to the rising cost of living as one of the motivations for reinvigorating an agriculture sector that in the 1960s was the top source of employment and, until recently, remained the biggest contributor to GDP.

Since last year’s GDP rebasing calculation, agriculture has fallen behind the services sector, making up 21 percent of Africa’s largest economy, highlighting how far it has fallen since the oil boom of the 1970s shifted priorities.

“It requires a lot of capital,” said Bunmi, 37, who used money from relatives to buy land incrementally over the last six years and now employs 125 people.

“People don’t want to invest. They would rather invest in a business that would bring a product out very fast,” he said.

CORRUPTION
The inability to secure funds leaves many farmers unable to take the steps needed to move beyond subsistence farming, such as hiring bulldozers to clear land for farming, building warehouse facilities and buying tractors.

Nigeria’s farmers have received little help from successive governments that vowed to support development, said Otunba Oke, who chairs the Lagos branch of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria
(AFAN).

“The government should assist with grants. The government should work with banks to ensure more favourable interest rate payments for farmers,” he said, adding that most farmers were unable to meet the requirements to secure loans.

However, previous efforts at government intervention have been undermined by corruption and mismanagement, agriculture analyst Liborous Oshoma said, citing a fertiliser scheme.

“People who weren’t farmers were given fertiliser licences,” said Oshoma. “Fertiliser racketing was a big problem in Nigeria,” he said, adding that many made a profit at the expense of farmers.

“People are leaving agriculture in their droves and looking for white collar jobs,” added Oshoma, who said Buhari’s administration will have to overcome the widely held perception that farmers work hard but remain poor.

Bunmi has an image on his mobile phone of his sons, aged four and seven, digging on the farm. But would he encourage them – and others – to follow in his footsteps?

“An average person will come into agric once they know the toil, the stress, the struggle will not go in vain,” he said.

Dwindling Oil Price: Okowa canvasses urgent steps to cushion effects

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State

As the economy continues to bite harder occasioned by the free fall of oil prices in the international market, governor of Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa, has called for urgent measures to check the loss of jobs in the country.

Okowa who spoke on Friday in Asaba when the National President of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Igwe Achese, led members of his executive to pay him a courtesy call, said the dwindling revenue from oil has become a major challenge that must be tackled through partnership between the state and federal government to diversify the economy.

He noted that the oil and gas sector was not the only sector being affected by the nose-dive in the price of oil, just as he disclosed that the construction sector has been greatly affected and urgent steps must be taken to address the situation and its attendant effects.

“We are beginning to loss jobs in the oil companies, the construction companies are even affected most because they employ more workers, especially, the youths, when they are working, the youths in their areas of operation are employed.

“Today, it is affecting the construction of roads and other infrastructure, we believe that with the coming of the dry season, we will be able to engage the construction companies and they will in turn, engage the youths and our people,” Okowa said.

While calling for patience and understanding from Nigerians and urging them to be positively engaged, Governor Okowa emphasised that the economy can be diversified with Nigerians going back to agriculture, agro-based business, small and medium scale enterprises.

He continued, “I hope the Federal and State governments will partner to find ways to diversify the economy so that we will not depend solely on oil but tap the benefits of engaging in agriculture and SMEs,” decrying situation where the gains from oil in the past were not used to prepare the country for the current down-turn in oil prices.”

The Governor used the occasion to assure Deltans of his administration’s commitment to remove tankers from the road, noting that he was ready to partner with the private sector in the development of tanker parks in the state, especially in the Warri/Effurun axis.

Earlier, Comrade Achese had said they were in the state to felicitate with Senator Okowa on his electoral victory and disclosed the Union’s efforts towards ensuring that tankers were parked properly without constituting nuisance to other road users.

Achese informed the Governor that the down-turn in the oil prices has taken its toll on oil workers were nine hundred persons have been laid off in Chevron’s operations in Delta State and same was applicable in other multi-national oil companies and called for urgent steps to check the situation.

IFAD empowers 221,751 farmers in Edo

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State

Peter Aikhuomobhogbe, Coordinator International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said on Sunday that the programme had empowered 221,751 farmers in Edo in the last 10 years.

Aikhuomobhogbe told NAN in Benin that most of the beneficiaries of the scheme were rural farmers, who were empowered to engage in small and medium agricultural enterprises.

He disclosed that the beneficiaries comprised 89,912 males and 115,547 females, adding that 13,452 of them were youths made up of 7,534 males and 5,918 females.

He said that the 10-year programme which began in 2005, re-prioritized its activities in 2012, with greater focus on agriculture.

The coordinator said that between 2012 and now, IFAD established seven cassava mills in Emuhun, Ikiran-Ile, Okuor and Evbohuan and other communities of the state.

He said that the programme also established a rice mill and yam storage facilities in Illushi community and sank bore holes in some other communities.
“The programme also assisted farmers to engage in fish and other livestock production, cultivation of different crops as well as capacity building and processing,’’ he added.

Aikhuomobhogbe explained that the programme had officially ended in the state, but that its loan scheme would end on March 31, 2016.

“What we are doing now is programme completion report and survey to determine its impact on the beneficiaries.

“The survey and report will serve as a basis for future intervention programmes in the state,” adding that the report would also reflect the failure and success rate of the programme.

Oklahoma wheat farmers faces challenges and responsibilities

With the United States normalizing relations with Cuba, there's been a lot of talk about new opportunities for Oklahoma's farmers.

Cuba has 11-million people and this country sell 85% of the grain to the other nations of the Caribbean.
Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economist, Kim Anderson says Cuba is less than 1% of the world market, but it won't hurt.

"If we open those Cuban markets, we will definitely pick up some demand there. We have got comparative advantage on transportation.

We've got say $10 a metric ton less, than say out of Argentina."These days if you're a wheat farmer in Oklahoma, you'd better be aware of everything from South America, to Russia and Kazakhstan.
Ponca City Wheat Farmer, Don Schieber is a global businessman.

"The value of the dollar in our Black Sea markets have been hurtin us on our exports sales and you've got Nigeria and Egypt waiting to grow more of their own grain"Schieber says he has to play every angle to be competitive.

You won't find a high roller in any casino, who has more nerve than a wheat farmer.But Schieber says he's not big on them.

"I've got nine of em here within 25 miles. I've been in two of em to eat. So I do enough gamblin out here. I don't need to go to a casino."

As the seeds went-in this fall, the farmers once again bet on the future.They're also aware that they have a responsibility to a hungry world.

Every year the farmers are hoping for the best possible yield and the best taste at the bakery. Researchers at O.S.U. are working to get that done.

They'll tell you, we also need to double our production by about the middle of this century.Dr. Brett Carver is the head of the wheat genetics program.

He says he's well aware that a lot more people are coming to dinner."We know that we can't get worse. There's no going back. We must get better in the food that we are raising."

They're using genetics to improve the farmer's odds and output, with custom varieties for Oklahoma.
But each one takes 12-years to develop and the Carver says world's population is growing fast.

"We're looking over our shoulder right now. The game is on now. We need to be preparing for 2050, 2060 today."

Fortunately they're just scratching the surface of crop genetics that offer tremendous potential. Oklahoma's farmers planted their wheat last month and they'll be harvesting in early summer. Let's hope they keep at it.By 2060 there will be about 10-billion of us, ready for that next meal.