On Saturday, July 30th, 2022, we hosted the 3rd edition of our industry platform, Code Cash Crop themed ‘Disrupting Agriculture Trade Infrastructure’. This is an initiative that celebrates the convergence of Technology, Finance, and Agriculture to unlock sustainable solutions to food system challenges in Africa.

Since its inception in 2018, Code Cash Crop has continually provided fun and educative space for learning and creating solutions to Agricultural commodities growth challenges on the continent, and it aligns with AFEX’s mission to build infrastructure and platforms that drive capital to power a trust economy in Africa’s commodity.

The event which was held in Oriental Hotel flagged off at 8 am with a keynote speech by Olatomiwa Williams Country Manager, Microsoft (Nigeria & Ghana). She centered her discussion on Coding Solutions for Transforming Agriculture Trade Infrastructure, stating the importance of innovation in areas where agriculture faces challenges.

“We need to focus on accelerating growth in the sector. Innovating in areas where agriculture faces challenges will help farmers scale their business, and it’s essential to simplify technology for smallholder farmers.”

This was immediately followed up by a panel session themed The Present and Future of Agriculture Commodity Trade in Africa. The panelists, included Teslim Shitta-Bey, Managing Editor, Proshare, Ayo Arikawe, Co-Founder & CTO, ThriveAgric; Nancy Olisakwe, Head, Clearing, and Settlement, AFEX and Zeal Akaraiwe, CEO, Graeme Blaque Group.

Second-panel session “Derisking Crossborder Transactions to Simplify Trade,” moderated by Mr. Olaolu Ajose, Head of Engineering, Chaka, had Puneet Arora, Country Manager One Part 365; Sikemi Tayo, Founder, KIT for Professionals; John Bosco DCEO, PAPSS, and Dr. Akeem Oyewale, CEO, Marble Capital Limited as panelists. One of the speakers on the panel, Sekemi Tayo noted the importance of secure borders “to derisk cross-border transactions, it’s critical that data be readily available, and this can be achieved by understanding the key players in the value chain and having cogent conversations on how to use technology to standardize trade in the commodities market.”

The third and final panel with the topic “Financing the Emergence of Efficient Agriculture Marketplace for Africa” was moderated by Mr. Martin Mbonu, Investment Associate, Vested World, and had panelists like EduAbasi Chukwunweike, Start-up lead, Microsoft W&E Africa; Kolawole Osinowo, CEO Baobab+, and Oluwatoyin Olubake, ID, Novastar Ventures West Africa. The Microsoft Start-up Lead, EduAbasi Chukwunweike , in her discourse, focused on the need to focus on the traceability of creditworthiness of farmers. “When we can solve the problem of the marketplace and how to increase farmers' yield using data then we can boast about Africa Feeding Itself”.

A nice twist to the event was the Ag-hackathon which brought together young talents from the fields of agriculture, finance, and technology in Nigeria to pitch viable business solutions that address Africa’s Trade Infrastructure to a panel of judges.

The hackathon first kicked off with a call for proposals on the 20th of April from innovators in the technology, finance, and agriculture fields to proffer AgriTech solutions that address these five key United Nations SDGs; SDG 1, No poverty, SDG 2, Zero Hunger, SDG 5, gender inequality, SDG 8, Decent work and economic growth, and SDG 12, responsible consumption, and production. We got about 250 registrations and over 100 proposal submissions from this action. However, 6 participants that fit the criteria were picked.

The finalists namely; Abubakar Sadiq Amao (Tarkin), Folasewa Abdulsalam (PalmFarms), Samuel Akame (Credence), Chibueze Opata (Greener Agro), Oluwasanmi Giwa (Agricede), Prince Achoja (Ma’aaji-Noma), each had viable innovations/solutions ideas for taking Africa’s food system to a whole new level.

In the end, Prince won the grand prize of 2.5 million naira, a free training program with Arravo, and a 6-month mentorship at AFEX. His platform (Ma’aji-Noma) wishes to integrate financial services built for farmers in poor and remote communities to help them access both offline and online financial services (Payments, Savings, thrifts, and Loans) and access agricultural information easily and faster in their local dialect.

Yusuf Oguntola, AFEX's Chief Technology Officer, in his concluding speech elaborated the urgency to trust culture of collaboration and innovation is essential, especially in Agriculture. While giving the vote of thanks expressed his pleasure in seeing the next generation of innovators from the fields of technology, finance, and agriculture come up with sustainable solutions to optimize agricultural business infrastructure.