Zowasel Reopens Northeast Operations, Offers Free GAP Services, Digitises SHFs Footprints
Zowasel has announced that it has reopened its Northeast operations after a five-year exit due to insecurity in that region of Nigeria. The company has appointed a former Oxfarm employee — DOMA Favour to lead its smallholder farmers' footprint digitization and value chain automation efforts in the region.
The Northeast region has long been plagued by insecurity, leading to the company’s exit in 2018 despite initially piloting and birthing its remote Crop Center infrastructure model to help connect local farmers without access to internet connectivity, smartphones, or electricity.
The Northeast region heavily relies on agriculture and serves as the primary source of income and sustenance for most communities, playing a pivotal role in rural livelihoods. Unfortunately, this vital sector has been grappling with severe challenges due to instability, resulting in the disruption of farming activities and the insecurity and inaccessibility of farmlands, forcing families to abandon their ancestral homes and fields. this is despite the region’s historical role as a major producer of crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, groundnut, sesame, cowpeas, and others.
As part of building sustainability value chains in the region, Zowasel is putting knowledge in the hands of smallholder farmers through its on-the-field agronomy services tailored to achieve optimal yields and build environmental and financial resilience of smallholder farmers.
Working with development partners at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Zowasel is aiming at improving the income of smallholder farmers in the region with support from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The team led by Doma began its activities in Mutum Biyu, headquarters of Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, where the team conducted Train the Trainer for extension agents and other staff to support smallholder farmers with GAP training and Agronomy services, the training is tailored for smallholder farmers and their interfacing organisations to take precise action to achieve optimal yields through field extension agents, agronomists and sustainability experts.
Alhaji Lawan Yahaya, a merchant in Kasuwan Buhu, Mutum Biyu, expresses his joy, saying, ‘I’ve known Zowasel for years now. I was sad when operations stopped in Taraba Northeast, but I’m glad Zowasel is back and even better.’ Alhaji Lawan further adds, ‘I will give Zowasel all the needed support, and I look forward to all that the company has to offer.’”
Zowasel has deployed its technology, agriculture and financial experts to the region to primarily help smallholder farmers and their interfacing organizations to increase productivity, and sustainability, profitability across the value chains.
Smallholder farmers and their interfacing organizations would access Zowasel price discovery and market-driven insight to uncover price information, benchmark prices and gain valuable market insight to make easy trading decisions resulting in increased earnings.
Zowasel’s flagship commodity and agro-inputs trading platform will help connect tens of thousands of smallholder farmers and their interfacing organizations with certified agro-inputs manufacturers and vetted processors to earn more for their produce, maximise profit and minimise risk.
More interestingly is the deployment of the Zowasel Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS) an innovative ethical credit scoring and loan assessment tool that bridges the GAP between financial institutions and smallholder farmers to unlock agricultural financing across the value chains.
The software is an AI-powered, Predictive Dynamic System (PDS) and human-powered Dynamic Variable System (DVS) that enables smallholder farmers and their interfacing organizations to digitize their footprints and automate their entire value chain activities, cultivation practices, farmland, harvest/sales records, and income as data points to access affordable agricultural loans to improve productivity in kind or cash.
The software calculates farmers’ cultivation loan needs and the most likely yield/income, and harvest/sales records from agricultural activities. It suggests loan limits based on farm size, and potential crop yield, in line with repayment capacity and commodity market demand, as well as providing recommendations on loan maturity.
The ACESS offers effective time and risk management for agricultural lending, enabling financial institutions with little or no agricultural knowledge to access borrowers’ data conveniently, processing loan applications, creditworthiness checks and KYC verification to make quick lending decision-in in a low-risk, cost-effective, and efficient manner.
Smallholder farmers expressed their hopefulness and confidence about the future with Zowasel. Hussaini Tukura, a smallholder farmer in Mutum Biyu, Gassol LGA, expresses her gratitude ‘I appreciate Zowasel for providing us with a platform to market our commodities and boost our income. We acknowledge the value of the agricultural training we received and are very confident that it translate to positive outcomes by the end of the season.” Also, Sabuwa Habu, a smallholder farmer, and chairwoman of the Yambakam Farmers Cooperative in the Kankwana Community of Gassol LGA stated that “we are delighted that Zowasel is here and we can now have access to premium markets and receive better value for our crops”. We’re excited and looking forward to both parties benefiting,’ she added.
Commenting on the reopening, Zowasel Head of Programs, Abdul Kareem Bangura; states that ‘the prevailing insecurities as a major factor, which not only led to increased logistics costs but also impacted the overall viability of operations’. The decision to re-engage with the region signifies Zowasel’s strategic commitment to address these challenges head-on and foster an environment conducive to sustainable agriculture.
According to Bangura, “there’s no better time to engage smallholder farmers across the region who have been battling with lack of access to financing, back cultivation skills, improved agro-inputs and market access than now. We are already conducting community sensitization and cooperative mobilization programs to help bridge the knowledge gap to help improve cultivation practices and drive footprint digitalization and value chain automation processes in the region”.
Zowasel will create direct and indirect employment for the region. Already the company has employed a team of extension agents, agronomists and sustainability experts to support hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers and their interfacing organisations to improve their productivity to meet the standard of processors and manufacturers on the Zowasel platform.
Zowasel is on a mission to develop a sustainable value chain across communities, people and the planet. The return to the Nigerian troubled Northeast signifies a bold stride toward achieving this mission, rekindling hope and nurturing a brighter future for agriculture in the region.
