The Chief Executive Officer, Agrorite Limited, Toyosi Ayodele has expressed the company’s commitment to improving the livelihood and productivity of every smallholder farmer in Africa and inspired the production and distribution of sustainable food for the continent.
In the same vein, Toyosi noted that Nigeria with its abundance and vast arable land makes agriculture an important sector of the nation’s economy with huge potential for job creation, food security, and poverty reduction.
He stressed that though the sector is largely dominated by subsistence farming, with improved seedlings, modern farming methods, and smarter agricultural advisory, agricultural yields will grow exponentially.
Toyosi said this at a colourful ceremony organized to mark the company’s 4th-anniversary celebration in Lagos, recently.
He told guests at the ceremony including the company’s Board members led by the Chairman, Dr. Felix Nwanze; staff, farmers, investors, and stakeholders of how his encounter with Mr. Ule, a yam farmer in Benue State, Nigeria, inspired him to start Agrorite.
He said, he started Agrorite to provide an innovative solution to address the challenges of post-harvest waste and lack of access to profitable markets for smallholder farmers like Mr. Ule faced and ensured the realization of a positive outcome for them.
Toyosi said: ‘’Agrorite’s mission is to improve the livelihood of every smallholder farmer in Africa and inspire the production and distribution of sustainable food for the continent.
‘’We are an agribusiness company that leverages technology to provide innovative solutions to warehousing and the local and international fair trade of agricultural commodities.
‘’Agrorite has been dedicated to empowering smallholder farmers across Africa and ensuring the realization of positive outcomes for them.
‘’We began operations in Kano, Kaduna, and other Northeast States in Nigeria, as well as Ghana and Guinea Bissau. The company received an award for 100 most promising startups by Startup Istanbul, Turkey.’’
Also, speaking at the event, the company’s Board Chairman, Dr. Kanayo Felix Nwanze, said: ‘’Ending hunger calls for a transformation that must begin with the rural sector – because, as shown by FAO, IFAD, AfDB, the World Bank and others, this is the environment, this is the population of farmers, fishers, herders, and pastoralists that is hit the hardest with hunger, with poverty, with climate change, and with conflict – ironically, the population and the environment that feeds most of Africa. And they are mostly women.’’
Highlighting the achievements recorded by the company since its inception, Toyosi revealed: ‘’Agrorite was selected as one of the 10 tech-enabled startups in Africa by AIRBUS and was also recognized as Africa’s Most Innovative Digital Agricultural Platform Brand of the Year by Africa’s Fintech Innovators Merit Award in August among many other achievements.
According to Toyosi, the company also officially launched in Guinea and received the award for Africa’s Most Impactful Agricultural Brand at the Global Quality Excellence and African Brand award.
Toyosi also said: ‘’As players in the biggest employment sector in Africa, Agrorite has onboarded and engaged over 300,000 smallholder farmers across different states of Nigeria and by leveraging technology have achieved the production of 200,000MT of agricultural commodities both of crops and animals and the trading of over 300,000MT of agricultural commodities across 5 continents of the world.
‘’We celebrate the last four years and all our achievements. We thank all our partners, clients, stakeholders, board members.”
