Forbes Africa went out to look for agtech innovators. My company, Zenvus, was selected as one of the top three agtech innovators in Africa by Forbes Africa. Forbes Africa spoke with me few weeks ago. The piece is out on print. The skinned web version is here. The magazine also quoted me, noting: ””2020 to 2030 will be the decade of agri-tech,” Ekekwe tells FORBES AFRICA.’
The new innovators talking tech to power in Africa’s agricultural economies. Could they be the future of farming and the continent’s path out of poverty?
Picture this: remote rural Africa, where communities assiduously farm vast stretches of arable land not knowing anything about digital technology or drones that can transform their lives.
Now picture this: forward-thinking innovators and entrepreneurs who swap the city for the village and lend these communities the tech and savvy to change farming – and their fortunes – forever.
Agriculture, the mainstay of Africa’s informal economies, needs a facelift, and some new faces to talk tech to power. Agri-tech is the buzzword, and we profile three innovators spearheading change in their communities. They grew up on these farms, and knowing their earth best, have created the technology they need, in turn revolutionizing agriculture, from the little corners of Africa.
About Zenvus
Zenvus is a pioneering precision farming technology company that uses computational algorithm and electronics to transform farms. Zenvus collects soil fertility and crop vegetative health data to deliver precision agriculture at scale. It then uses the aggregated and anonymized data to deliver financial services to farmers.
NB: There are some errors in the piece. Zenvus was founded in 2015 with USAID fund, not 2011.
Across Africa, governments are converting abandoned public buildings into technology makerspaces and hubs. There is nothing wrong doing just that. I support them. But when they add the statement – “We’ll create Silicon Valley here”- in different fashions to those initiatives, I get very concerned for the lack of basic understanding of what it would take to have a Silicon Valley.
Pursuing the vision of creating Silicon Valley is noble. Everyone needs one, from Nairobi to Kigali, Kampala to Lagos, it would help, as we strive to diversify the African economy. But the plan by Lagos State to actually create Silicon Valley within “18 months” in Sabo Industrial Estate got me laughing.
The Lagos State Government said on Friday that it had concluded plans to transform the Sabo Industrial Estate in Yaba into a technology hub and a silicon valley within 18 monhs.
The state Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr Hakeem Fahm, made the disclosure at the 2018 Ministerial Press Briefing in commemoration of the third year of the administration of Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode.
Fahm said that the transformation meant that a new set of entrepreneurs and innovators would be raised to address the challenges confronting the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
Mr. Commissioner, you cannot create Silicon Valley in Lagos within 18 months because there is really no formal zip code called Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley means 24/7 electricity, better schools, good roads, excellent teachers in schools, smart regulations, healthcare systems, security and those things no one wants to deal with in Nigeria.
Once you can produce those, Silicon Valley would evolve. No refurbishing of abandoned buildings or building useless fancy offices will create Silicon Valley if you do not have electricity, pay health workers to avoid strikes, etc. In Silicon Valley, their leaders visit hospitals in Silicon Valley and not those in London, Paris and Baltimore. That means, the hospitals in Silicon Valley work, and they pay workers, preventing strikes.
I do not want to discourage you, but remember that the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology has many “Silicon Valleys” in nearly all states in Nigeria. Yes, find abandoned government buildings, ask a contractor to supply computers, get some young people to go there daily, and magically you have a Silicon Valley. It is irrelevant if those young people have electricity to power those computers.
Of course, go ahead and re-build Sabo but there is no need to add “Silicon Valley” to the initiative. Adding Silicon Valley complicates a noble vision which is to add facilities which any decent community should have. Let us just focus on such before we begin the unhelpful comparison which adds no value.
Sabo will be fine to be Sabo (Lagos State) in 18 months. It does not need to be Silicon Valley. It simply needs to be a community with good roads, constant power, decent schools, solid security, good hospital, etc. If you make such happen, you have done all you need. The rest belongs to the promise of the future – no one knows. Possibly, Sabo could be Silicon Mars because it makes better sense than a Valley. Yes, Sabo boys and girls can go to Mars but it may not be in 18 months.
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Politicians and their acolytes, they have once again activated the ‘reverse thinking’ or ‘inverted thinking’ mode, with one clear feature always present: lack of understanding about that is being copied or mimicked.
We have a Nollywood, with no physical address, but trying to mimic Hollywood; this time, it’s about renaming enclaves to ‘Silicon Valleys’, as if a name suddenly makes magical transformation, without the hardwork therein.
The fact that many of those in public service only see and understand tech innovations through the lens of ‘ICT’, says a lot about how knowledgeable they really are. Until they first learn to appreciate technology from the wider lens of knowledge economy, and do away with the already stale and mundane use of ‘ICT’ to convey their ineptitude about what tech innovation truly demands, in order to thrive; we may be stuck in this regurgitation for ages.
Sabo doesn’t need a ‘Silicon Valley’ emblazoned on its forehead in order to thrive, rather it needs just a change of mentality: knowing what needs to be done first, and then going ahead to do those things.
Webmaster Note (N.U): This event has sold out. Please contact us for a new workshop we plan to run in Lagos.
The ITNews Africa, a South African publisher, has called me a “doctor of innovation”. As they were creating a new product – the “African Innovator Magazine” – they knocked at my door. The London-based Planet Earth Institute, a non-profit chaired by a former UK Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has recognized me as an “African science and technology pioneer”. From TED fellowship to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader, through my doctoral degrees and master’s degrees, to my works on iPhone sensors, innovation has been my only strategy. I teach innovation, from South Africa to Vietnam, from Kenya to United States, and beyond. And on the pages of Harvard Business Review, I have been writing on innovation for years. And I live innovation in my businesses and we have won awards because we delight customers.
This September, I will bring an innovation workshop to Nigeria. I always come to Nigeria to lead programs for banks, insurers, technology companies, governments and more. The cost is above industry pricing, making it very hard for some firms to afford to host me solely.
To solve that, I am going to run an open [anyone can pay and attend] workshop for three days in September. The cost is N800,000 ($2,300) per participant. The venue would be Lagos.
State of the Tech Nation – This address will discuss Technology, Opportunities & Unlocking Wealth in Nigeria
Workshop Structure
To innovate is to set a new basis of competition in an economy, business sector or market. Typically, it results to disruption. This workshop will focus on innovation and growth because growth is the reward of innovation. Otherwise, that innovation is actually an invention. I will be the lead instructor with my supporting crew. The table below provides the workshop structure.
The Category-Kings Benchmarking [Local & International]
Innovation Execution
Who should attend?
The workshop is designed for mid and senior leadership teams. These include CEOs, VPs, directors, technology, sales, marketing, strategy and finance leads in all business sectors. The workshop is aimed at:
Companies looking for new growth areas and products
Companies with potential, ambition and capacity for high growth
New company owners, founders and entreprenuers who want to build robust businesses.
Existing companies who want to engineer innovation within existing enterprises
Startups and their leaders who need directions on roadmaps and strategies
Governments and policy makers working to stimulate innovations
How to Register
There are two ways to register – either method works for us.
Make a payment of N800,000 to any of our bank accounts here [you can also use Interswicth and GTPay, though you can just make the transfer to our bank directly]. Once you make payment, email the contact below.
Make payment via Paypal using our FASMICRO U.S.A. merchant account for $2,300. Once you do, contact the email below. Use this link here to process the payment via Paypal.
Before the Program [Your Innovation Roadmap Brief]
Once you make payment, my team would reach out. We would need at least a two-page document frOm you, explaining your business (or function) and the challenges you are having or what you expect. Using the insight, we would develop an Innovation Roadmap Brief which will be sent to you before the program starts. That document would form a part of your Lab during the workshop. Our workshop ensures we look into your business (or functional role) and you leave our program with clarity on execution.
Venue
This event will take place in Lagos (Nigeria), September 2018, in a leading hotel. We would share with registered participants.
Expected Outcome
My goal is that after this workshop, you would have a clear roadmap to execute innovation at a company-wide or functional level. My workshops are intense, practical and interactive with local cases flavored with international examples, making sure you are global-aware even as you plot a gloCal strategy (see my Harvard piece on this]. I will focus on the growth of your business (or your functional role), and I expect you to return to work with clarity on how to make innovation happen at scale.
First Come, First Serve
We have limited space. Once we reach capacity, we would stop accepting participants. So, register immediately. You can also inform my team via email to reserve space immediately while you seek approval for payment [they typically give a time frame for that].
The most exciting space in Africa to raise money at the moment is in fintech. Agtech (agricultural technology) comes second but the separation is huge. Fintech is raising money because Africa is still largely a cash-based economy, as I noted yesterday. Investors understand that the future is going to be digital, and they are pumping money into startups working to digitize African payments. Despite what we have done so far, about 98% of all consumer-to business-transactions are still cash-based in Nigeria.
According to research done by The Fletcher School and MasterCard, of the $301 billion of funds flow from consumers to businesses in Nigeria, 98 percent is still based on cash.
Yet, most firms are focusing too much on “clicks” neglecting “bricks”. If 98% of your revenue is coming from bricks today, you cannot neglect the physical. Do not listen to them when they say that today is mobile and online. Sure, the future promises mobile and online, but we have to survive today.
Do not be intimidated with the alarms on online disruption: the glory on the clicks is a promise. But “bricks” is on our hands. You are investing too much for clicks and your management is focusing largely exclusively on clicks. No one cares about the bricks. Unfortunately, the “bricks” customers are noticing. They are not happy in your stores.
So, digital payment companies have 98% of opportunities ahead to be tapped. If they can move from 2% digital payment penetration to 50% of the $301 billion, they would be earning about $4.5 billion on fees if the average commission is 3%. This explains why you are seeing foreign and local investors throwing cash on fintech companies with specific focus on payments. Yes, those companies include Paystack, Flutterwave, and just few hours ago Cellulant. Cellulant raised $47.5 million from TPG Growth fund (along with others).
The Rise Fund owned by private equity firm TPG Growth, led a $47.5 million investment in Cellulant, an African digital payments provider with operations in Kenya and Nigeria.
The deal which includes Endeavour Catalyst and Satya Capital and was announced on Monday, 14 May, is the first of its kind in Africa not just for the firm but it is the largest involving a fintech company that does business in Africa. The last time a fintech company received equity investment exceeding two digits was in 2017 when Flutterwave secured over $10 million.
“This accelerates the company’s goal of becoming the number one digital payments and financial services provider,” Bolaji Akinboro, co-founder of Cellulant and CEO of Cellulant Nigeria said on Twitter on Monday morning.
Cellulant was established in 2004 by Ken Njoroge (Kenyan) and Bolaji Akinboro. Initially, the founders focused the company in providing music and news content on mobile to consumers in Kenya and Nigeria. The company began to diversify into mobile money services in 2005. It was awarded a mobile payment license by the Central Bank of Nigerian in 2014 which helped to facilitate its partnership with the Nigerian government to supply fertiliser to farmers using a mobile wallet scheme.
Cellulant has operations in 11 countries including Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Liberia, Malawi, Botswana, and Mozambique, with 94 banks and seven mobile money platforms that have a combined potential customer base of 130 million
This is just a starting point – the startups would need multiples of these amounts to scratch the sector. The challenge is really that they would have to build the foundation infrastructure since government has not provided most basic amenities. Think of offering merchant digital payments when there is no electricity and connectivity. And that is also why what they are doing is exciting: if they build these systems now, they could lockup the opportunities if everything runs on their pipelines. There is no doubt – fintech would offer Africa the first major exit in the startup world.
