Nigerian agri-tech startup Farmcrowdy has won the African Digital Business of the Year Award for its solution that makes farms available for sponsorship.
Farmcrowdy, which late last year launched a mobile app and secured US$1 million in seed funding, allows users to crowdfund farms.
Funds are used for a variety of purposes, such as securing land, planting seeds, insuring farmers and produce, and selling the harvest, with sponsors able to track the process and receive a return on their sponsorship.
The Digital Business of the Year Award was granted at the annual Global African Business Awards (GABA) ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Launched last year, GABA was founded to celebrate, honour and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of African organisations and professionals.
Other nominees for the Digital Business of the Year Award included e-commerce platforms Konga, Jumia, Zando, Dressmeoutlet, Mall for Africa and DealDey, as well as agri-tech company WeFarm, the Interswitch payment gateway, and marketing startup Delvv.io.
“We are honoured to have our hard work aimed at impacting on the lives of rural farmers recognised. We are delighted about the great opportunities ahead of us as we continually strive to remain at the forefront of technological innovation in agriculture across Nigeria and eventually the continent of Africa,” said Onyeka Akumah, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Farmcrowdy.
With a team of 35, Farmcrowdy has over the last 20 months empowered over 7,000 rural farmers and given thousands of farm sponsors a platform to participate in agriculture from their computers or mobile phones.
This impact has seen the platform plant maize, rice and cassava on over 8,000 acres of farmland in less than two years, and raise close to 600,000 chickens to boost food production in Nigeria.
