By Jimoh Babatunde

A Nigerian based spices producing, processing, and exporting company, Agricorp International, has raised $17.5 million in ‘Series A’ funding to increase its processing capacity up to 7000 metric tonnes per annum.

Speaking with journalists, Agricorp’s Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth Obiajulu, said “We believe that by increasing our capacity to 7,000MT, we will maximise the potentials to boost Nigeria’s forex earnings through export, contribute our quota to improving the Nigerian GDP from agriculture, and serve as a worthy model to African youths who aspire to be agribusiness owners. We want to show them it is possible and very rewarding as well”.

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Obiajulu explained that since its launch in Nigeria in November 2018, Agricorp has supported over 5,000 smallholder farmers with inputs and training on good agronomic practices.

“It has built a 0.5MT/hour spice processing plant in Kaduna that produces value-added products for the export market. It has also used its proprietary technology, Farmbase to register, aggregate, and pay farmers for produce sold.

He said in a market where farmers are largely undocumented and unbanked, Agricorp collates data that can help provide detailed analysis for stakeholders like government, agribusiness, private companies and donor organisations among others to make informed agricultural decisions.

“It also helps with traceability of all farmer activities from the need for farm input to disbursement to sales of produce and eventually, payment. Financial institutions can also use this information to provide loans, credit facilities, and insurance to interested parties.’’