By Hamid Ayodeji
Farmcrowdy, a leading technology driven agricultural firm in Nigeria has launched new e-commerce, trading and aggregation platforms for smallholder farmers and other stakeholders, as it gave hints of a possible berth in two other countries in 2021.
The new platform is part of the firm’s expansion strategy to grow its service in agriculture beyond financing through the use of technology to enhance the country’s food value chain, as well as connect over three million farmers to alternative financing and market access via a crowdfunding platform.
The firm said in a statement made available to Business A.M. that its businesses, including Farmcrowdy Structured Finance, Farmcrowdy Insurance, Farmcrowdy Marketing, Farmcrowdy Technology and Data, Farmcrowdy Foods and Farmcrowdy Aggregation were set up to serve all individuals across the entire agriculture value chain, prioritising stakeholder access to better yields, lower costs, and smarter marketing.
In light of the new development and the opportunities that exist in the agriculture value chain, Farmcrowdy said it remains dedicated to supporting the federal government’s plan to achieve food security in Nigeria, while also tackling food wastage as a result of poor harvesting techniques and lack of storage facilities with the use of technology based innovations and solutions in order to build tools and resources farmers would need to boost food security in the country.
Onyeka Akumah, founder and chief executive officer, Farmcrowdy Limited, said that its platform is a one-stop-shop created to provide major processors and international buyers the opportunity to purchase commodities directly from farming clusters and aggregators by optimising market access to African farmers and improving their income and boosting their yields.
According to him, Farmcrowdy Foods is a one-stop e-commerce platform for fresh food and groceries created in the heat of the COVID -19 pandemic as a solution to the growing food scarcity by giving individuals the opportunities to purchase food items that are fresh, healthy, and fit for consumption conveniently from the comfort of their homes.
The company has also added to its portfolio the Farmcrowdy Foods and the Farmcrowdy Trader platforms under Farmcrowdy Aggregation, that are aimed at creating an environment for greater integration of the value chain through vertical relationships which improves product flow, thereby reducing cost, inconveniences, and improving efficiencies with adequate deployment of technology solutions.
Farmcrowdy Trader has a mobile application that enables easy farmer’s data profiling, advisory services, procurement, agency banking, insurance, and microcredit for small holder farmers.
Since its inception in April 2020, Farmcrowdy Foods has been able to complete over 3,000 orders in its first 90 days, through the Farmcrowdy Foods mobile application available on the application stores.
Also, the award winning startup hinted at a possible expansion to replicate its model in two countries by 2021.
