By Chikodi Okereocha
A fintech firm, Cellulant Corporation, has assured of its commitment to leveraging technology to help block inefficiency and wastages in the agric value chain through its improved payment and marketplace solutions, Tingg and Agrikore 2.0.
Both solutions provide access to the marketplace, increase transparency and simplify the whole agric value chain.
However, while Tingg is a payment solution accessible to everyone, Agrikore is an innovative platform built on blockchain technology and connects all players in the agricsector in over 120 African countries.
Cellulant’s co-Chief Executive Officer Ken Njoroge said Nigeria and other African countrieshave comparative advantage in agriculture, but needed efficiency in its value chain to achieve the desired impact on food security, job creation and economic development.
Speaking on the sideline of the company’s inaugural ‘Partners’ Summit in Lagos, over the weekend, he said Agrikore and Tingg have been tested and affirmed to be connecting everyone in the agric farm place while boosting transparency.
The summit had: Technology for Transformation: Connecting Everyone to Nigeria’s $50 billion agribusiness opportunity & creating jobs for Africa’s youth as its theme.
It was attended by development partners, including the African Development Bank, Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF), Flutterwave and Deposit Money Banks.
Njoroge’s words: “If you bring efficiency into the agric value-chain, ensure that crops don’t rot in farms, trucks operate regularly, there will be no unemployed youth in rural areas, and no factory producing below capacity.
“If we can connect these dots, we can bring efficiency that can power the transformation of Nigeria and Africa all across the board.”
“The marketplace and payment platforms are connecting everyone. The payment platform ensures that everyone gets paid in real-time as transactions happen.
“We know it’s working, we are working with 120 banks on the continent; large businesses are our customers. This is a collaboration that continues to benefit all parties.”
Also speaking, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Cellulant, BolajiAkinboro, said the company’s payment platform allows the farmer, aggregator, supplier, everyone to see how money is flowing in the system.
“It is for people who want to be part of an ecosystem that is profitable for them and which also provides jobs for hundreds of people,” he added.
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Akinboro in his presentation titled, “From Farm to Fork: Transforming the Agribusiness in Nigeria Through Technology-What does the Future Hold”, emphasised the need to strengthen Nigeria’s agric value chain so as to derive maximum benefits in the entire sector.
Highlighting Cellulant’s strides in improving Africa’s agric value chain, Akinboro said: “We are not just a technology fintech company; we have the technology and operations via Agrikore.
“When you combine technology and operations, you can change the world. We are providing technology that makes life better for everyone; Nigerians and Africans.”
While reiterating that technology is a critical enabler to solve many of the challenges experienced in the agric sector, Akinboro said that in the last 15 years, Cellulant has actively contributed to connecting all key stakeholders in the value chain, who, in the past, never interacted with each other.
“Today, the business has built a marketplace and payments platform that provides access to markets, digital financial services, and opens opportunities for all stakeholders to collaborate better and capture the $50b market opportunity,” he said.
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