Aminu Halilu Tudun Wada
ThriveAgric, an agricultural technology company said it has invested over $100 million to empower 514,000 smallholder farmers to scale food production in Africa.
The company disclosed this in its year 2022 Impact Report.To accomplish these groundbreaking milestones, the agricultural company said it leveraged its proprietary technology and key partnerships with governments and global institutions including the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX), Promasidor (Kenya) Limited, VISA, and OCP Africa.
The company’s impact report also revealed that the empowered farmers had produced a total of 1.5 million plus metric tonnes of grains. The company also recorded a 153.3% year-on-year increase in the number of women it impacted.
Emphasizing that the company had been able to achieve the feats through strategic partnerships, Partnership Lead at ThriveAgric, Samirah Bello, said:
“At ThriveAgric, we remain committed as an impact-driven and customer-focused company. Through our strategic partnerships, we have been able to accelerate impact and reach meaningful milestones while tackling barriers confronting smallholder farmers in their day-to-day business. This report is an expansion of our 2017–2021 impact report, and we are proud to say that we have built a tech-driven agricultural enterprise that will eventually help feed both Africa, and the rest of the world.”
Speaking on the social impact, Uka Eje, CEO and co-founder of ThriveAgric said: “In addition to the social benefits such as reducing poverty and improving gender equality, smallholder farmers that work with ThriveAgric produce double the national average yields due to access to better quality seeds, fertilisers and equipment.
At ThriveAgric, we will continue to adopt a multifaceted approach that includes collaboration between various stakeholders, increased investment, technology adoption, and sustainable agricultural practices. Our 2022 impact report is a testament that we are on the right track.”
Access to funding remains one of the biggest challenges confronting smallholder farmers in Africa. According to the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), agri-SMEs in Africa are critically underfunded with an annual financing gap of approximately $100 billion.
ThriveAgric is bridging this gap by providing input financing, providing data-led advisory to improve output, enhancing supply chain efficiency, and encouraging sustainable agricultural practices with the aim of building a network of profitable smallholder farmers and contributing to a food-secure Africa.
Leaning into its Theory of Change (highlighted in the impact report), ThriveAgric aims to provide $500 million in credit to 10 million smallholder farmers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya in 2027, and to double this outcome by 2050.
The company will also be working with organisations that leverage its Agricultural Operating Software (AOS) to provide access to loans for their farmers and is currently onboarding partners. With food security projected by the UN to rise to a record 310 million Africans by 2030, ThriveAgric has planned expansions into Tanzania, Egypt, and Zambia to alleviate the potential impact.
