Zowasel

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Zowasel.Com Ltd.
Industry Agriculture Technology
Founder(s) Jerry OCHE
Services
  • Marketplace
  • Alternative Finance
  • Market Information
  • Traceability
  • Advisory Services
Website zowasel.com

Zowasel is an agricultural technology company that leverages data science and technology to enhance smallholder farmers' productivity, sustainability, and profitability across the value chain.[1][2][3]

Founded in 2015 by Jerry Crhis OCHE with the mission to develop sustainable agricultural value chains across communities, people and the planet. Zowasel facilitates trade and value chain integration benefiting stakeholders such as smallholder farmers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, processors, financial institutions, and development partners.[4]

History

Zowasel is an agricultural technology company founded in 2015 by Jerry OCHE in Lagos, Nigeria.[5] The company's inception stemmed from OCHE's observation of the challenges his mother faced in accessing finance and markets for her agricultural commodities, leading him to establish Zowasel with a focus on innovative solutions to address issues within the agricultural value chain.[6]

After graduating from the Founder Institute accelerator in 2019, Jerry partnered with Oghenekome Umuerri, a finance and business strategy expert, who became a co-founder. Together, they aimed to simplify and develop sustainable agricultural value chains across communities, people, and the planet.

The name "Zowasel" is derived from an acronym of local Nigerian languages meaning "come and sell," reflecting the company's mission to address market access challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

Zowasel operates a digital marketplace that connects farmers and enterprise buyers while leveraging data and artificial intelligence to trace supply chains,[7] build credit scores, ensure transparent pricing, and provide access to finance. The company has received recognition through programs like the Founder Institution Accelerator Program, the AFD SIBC, and the GIZ SAIS Investment Readiness Program.[8]

In 2021, Zowasel introduced Crop Centers, a remote infrastructure initiative, to connect smallholder farmers without internet access to its products and services through licensed agents across rural farming communities. The company also partnered with the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to extend its reach to millions of smallholder farmers through SFSA's Farm Hubs network.

Operating across Nigeria with a team comprising over 40 office employees, 400 field agents, and software engineers, Zowasel expanded its presence to East Africa in 2024, establishing offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Zowasel offers smallholder farmers online and offline access to its digital solutions through channels like USSD, IVR, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and mobile apps. The company's crop centers, equipped with digital scales and moisture meters, serve as one-stop shops for crop aggregation, input sales, and financial services. With 45 operational centers across Nigeria managed by local Trustees, Zowasel facilitates access to farm machinery for rent, enabling increased productivity and seamless transactions between growers and buyers.

Research and Development

Zowasel has been actively engaged in research and development initiatives to enhance agricultural practices and support smallholder farmers. In 2020, the company partnered with Mitsubishi Corporation to conduct a proof-of-concept study for agricultural mechanization rental services to assess the potential for commercialization and support smallholder farmers to boost productivity and income.

In 2021, Zowasel partnered with Solidaridad,[9] an international civil society organization. The collaboration aims to provide smallholder farmers access to essential information to improve farm management practices, enhance crop quality, increase financial inclusion, access better farm inputs to boost yields and access appropriate markets to improve income from their harvests.

In 2022, Zowasel partnered with Barry Callebaut to explore sustainable cocoa value chains to improve smallholder farmers' productivity, sustainability, and income. Additionally, the company initiated free ethical credit scoring services for smallholder farmers to enhance their financial identity and access to credit.

In 2022, Zowasel collaborated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), and Mitsubishi Corporation Nigeria to conduct R&D to determine the creditworthiness of smallholder farmers. This research aimed to leverage Zowasel's alternative transactional and sustainability data, combined with traditional finance data, to increase agricultural lending and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.[10]

Part of this R&D effort was part of JICA's Next Innovation with Japan (Project NINJA), a platform supporting entrepreneurship that addresses social issues through business solutions. The project aimed to assess the acceptability and potential scalability of lending to smallholder farmers in Nigeria using alternative scoring data.

Through these partnerships, Zowasel developed an ethical credit scoring system called the Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS)[11] and tools like an AI-powered Predictive Dynamic System (PDS) and a human-powered Dynamic Variable System (DVS). These systems revolutionize credit assessment processes, enabling quick lending decisions for financial institutions in a low-risk, cost-effective manner.

In 2023, Zowasel successfully piloted the ACESS system, where over 700 smallholder farmers and 100 farmer organizations met the credit scoring requirements. Loans of $250,000 were disbursed to qualified participants across various states in Nigeria for agricultural activities within the grain and cash crop value chains.

The same year, Zowasel partnered with VFD Microfinance Bank to provide quality smallholder farmers and farmer organizations financing through its Agricultural Credit Evaluation Scoring System.

In January 2024, Zowasel launched the Zowasel Carbon & Biodiversity program with support from Mitsubishi Corporation. This initiative focuses on developing an AI-based MRV platform utilizing remote sensing and ground truth data to measure biodiversity and carbon sequestration across agricultural value chains. The program aims to create carbon credits by measuring soil carbon levels and selling them to companies aiming to reduce their carbon footprint.

Products and services

Zowasel offers a range of innovative products and services to improve the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural value chains. Here is a concise overview of the key offerings:

Commodity Marketplace

  • Flagship Product: Zowasel's Commodity Marketplace connects millions of smallholder farmers in Nigeria to processors and manufacturers across various value chains.
  • Features: The platform simplifies cultivation processes, reduces post-harvest losses, eliminates multiple middlemen, accelerates 24-hour payments, enables direct interaction between buyers and sellers through its Negotiation Room, and helps both parties save time and money.[12]

Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS)

  • Purpose: ACESS is an ethical credit scoring and loan assessment tool that bridges the gap between farmers and financial institutions to unlock alternative financing opportunities.
  • Functionality: It assesses credit risk, determines working capital needs, predicts crop yield, suggests loan limits based on repayment capacity, and provides recommendations on loan maturity.[13]

Traceability

  • Overview: Zowasel offers traceability solutions that provide insights into supply chain sustainability parameters from farm to factory gate.
  • Objectives: The traceability feature helps customers adapt to meet social and environmental targets by connecting them directly to the source of supply at each stage of the product's journey.

Zowasel Carbon and Biodiversity

  • Initiative: This program incentivizes smallholder farmers to engage in regenerative agriculture practices for sustainable farm management.
  • Impact: By promoting sustainable farming practices like soil sequestration, Zowasel aims to reduce agriculture carbon pollution and create carbon sinks through carbon sequestration in ecosystems.

Funding

Zowasel received $100,000 in corporate investment funding at the Zero Hunger Sprint in 2021 Promasidor.[14] The funding was part of $250,000 from five corporate organizations, including Guinness Nigeria Plc, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, TGI Agriculture, Heineken/Nigeria Breweries Plc, and the Tolaram Group.[15][16]

In 2023, the company secured over $2 million in debt financing from corporate customers and financial institutions, such as VFD Microfinance Bank. This funding aimed to support the expansion of marketplace transactions and alternative financing services for smallholder farmers and farmer organizations.[17]

Awards

  • In 2018, Zowasel received the Visa Everywhere Initiative award for Financial Inclusion, linking hundreds of smallholder farmers to alternative finance and direct markets.
  • Zowasel was recognized as the Most Innovative Online Crops Marketplace in West Africa by the MEA Business Awards.[18]

In the media

Watch the impact of the Zowasel Alternative Credit evaluation scoring system(ACESS)
How Technology Can Boost Nigeria's Agric Sector - Zowasel
Watch our Co-founder and CEO talk to the UN WFP about what Zero Hunger means to us

References

  1. ↑ "Zowasel". https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/142556-41#overview. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  2. ↑ "zowasel". https://www.cbinsights.com/company/zowasel. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  3. ↑ "Zowasel". https://www.f6s.com/company/zowasel. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  4. ↑ "zowaselcom". https://digestafrica.com/companies/zowaselcom. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  5. ↑ "Zowasel Stories, Data, Wiki and Company News | HackerNoon" (in en). https://hackernoon.com/company/zowasel. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  6. ↑ "zowasel". https://craft.co/zowasel. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  7. ↑ Quenum, Adoni Conrad. "Nigeria: Zowasel improves the agricultural value chain by leveraging tech tools" (in fr-fr). https://www.wearetech.africa/en/fils-uk/solutions/nigeria-zowasel-improves-the-agricultural-value-chain-by-leveraging-tech-tools. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  8. ↑ "Zowasel – SAIS – Scaling digital Agriculture Innovations through Start-ups (GIZ)". https://sais-accelerator.com/start-up-profile/zowasel/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  9. ↑ "zowasel-partners-with-solidaridad-to-improve-nigeria-oil-palm-value-chain". https://innovation-village.com/zowasel-partners-with-solidaridad-to-improve-nigeria-oil-palm-value-chain/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  10. ↑ "Creating access for oil palm smallholders in Nigeria - Solidaridad". 14 February 2024. https://www.solidaridadnetwork.org/news/creating-access-to-guaranteed-markets-for-oil-palm-smallholders-in-nigeria/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  11. ↑ Okojie, Josephine (20 February 2024). "How Zowasel links farmers with finance through Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System". https://businessday.ng/agriculture/article/how-zowasel-links-farmers-with-finance-through-alternative-credit-evaluation-scoring-system/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  12. ↑ Black, Sam (26 August 2021). "Fighting Hunger With A New Kind of AI Founded by HU professor". https://www.harrisburgu.edu/news/ai-fights-hunger/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  13. ↑ Maritz, Jaco (28 September 2022). "Linking Nigerian farmers with buyers: Start-up taps into 'massive opportunity'". https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/linking-nigerian-farmers-with-buyers-start-up-taps-into-massive-opportunity/147541/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  14. ↑ "Nigerian Online Marketplace Zowasel Bags $100,000 At The UNWFP Zero Hunger Sprint". 5 August 2021. https://techbuild.africa/online-zowasel-100000-unwfp-zero-hunger-sprint/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  15. ↑ "empowering-smallholder-farmers-v-bank-and-zowasel-join-forces-to-provide-100000-usd-in-credits". https://vbank.ng/empowering-smallholder-farmers-v-bank-and-zowasel-join-forces-to-provide-100000-usd-in-credits/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  16. ↑ "- The United Nations' World Program endorses Promasidor Nigeria’s partnership with Zowasel in the fight against hunger in Nigeria". 18 August 2021. http://www.promasidor.ng/en/news/articles/the-united-nations-world-program-endorses-promasidor-nigeria-s-partnership-with-zowasel-in-the-fight-against-hunger-in-nigeria/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  17. ↑ "How Nigerian Agritech Startup Zowasel Is Changing The Lives Of Smallholder Farmers" (in en). 29 November 2022. https://weetracker.com/2022/11/29/nigerian-agritech-startup-zowasel-is-changing-lives-farmers/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 
  18. ↑ "Zowasel (2020 Winner: MEA Business Awards)". https://www.mea-markets.com/winners/zowasel/. Retrieved 5 March 2024. 

External links

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