Afrimash was highly honored to receive an invitation from Africanfarmer Mogaji, CEO, AgricBusiness Empowerment Initiative (AgricBusinessNG), to the maiden edition of the Agribusiness Africa Conference. The conference held on Nigeria’s Independence Day, October 1, 2019, marking an extraordinary milestone in the roadmap towards establishing the agribusiness space in Africa.
This conference was designed to create a post-event platform for small and scaling agribusinesses to develop valuable networks, collaborate, form strong alliances and create mastermind groups to leverage their small business advantage to positively disrupt the industry.
The gathering attracted investors, academics, agribusiness veterans, and young agribusiness minds eager to listen and learn from the experts
Meet The Speakers
1. Subomi Plumptre is the Executive Director, Alder Consulting & Director, Volition Capital. She spoke on “Funding and Branding Agric Businesses”. Using data, Mrs. Subomi was able to capture the attention of the participants as she related these details to the branding of commodities.
On investment in agribusiness, Mrs. Subomi Plumptre said ”You can’t be looking for investors and your public relations is poor”. She concluded with the need for Nigeria to start producing both raw materials while adding value to it, thereby creating multi-billion dollar brands.
2. Otunba, Pradeep Pahalwani is the Managing Director, Securisk Insurance. Mr. Pradeep began his presentation on “Scaling Agric Businesses with Franchising Model” with a diversion into the Agric Value-chain. Stating the top three categories in this chain; Land, Inputs, and Crops, in which Afrimash comes under the category of the inputs.
Citing his view on agriculture to young minds, Mr. Pradeep said, “Don’t have a fixed mindset that Agric means farming”. Having said this, he outlined the various aspects of Agric which included; Project, Sales/Marketing, Finance/Funding, Insurance, Information Technology, Human Resource, Production amongst others.
An intriguing point he noted was building your business to sell. Expatiating on this, Mr. Pradeep stated the need to build your business to a state that it is sellable. In other to achieve this, there would be a need to delegate power, empower people, and put checks and balances in place. As regards the delegation of power, he mentioned the need to hire for attitude and train for skill.
Focusing on his topic; selling your business through franchising, Mr. Pradeep spoke on the major factors that make a business franchisable while influencing a smooth franchise agreement. These features boiled down to the business owners’ mindset, staff training, well-documented systems and processes, track records, and the business being able to run without you.
Mr. Praheep switched between the English language and vernacular as he spoke to the participants. His humorous nature lightened the tension in the air, making everyone attentive and excited about his impactful presentation.
3. M.D Abubakar is the president of the Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria (CODARAN), (the umbrella body of the indigenous dairy farmers in the country). He is also the Managing Director / CEO of L&Z Integrated Farms Nig. Ltd, also the Chairman of L&Z Dairy Fresh. He is an executive leadership member of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG).
He expatiated on “Exploring Business Opportunities in Dairy Value Chain. He highlighted the three factors that influenced milk generation, including Environment, Genetics, and Feed. MD Abubakar buttressed how lucrative dairy business is, giving business minds a reason not to leave it to the northern nomadic people alone.
4. Folake Odediran, General Manager Rx and Country Chair Nigeria – Ghana for Sanofi spoke on “Positioning Yourself for Success”. She inspired the participants through her impactful presentation to pull through all struggles to make progress at all times.
5. Josephine Nzerem – the Director, Venture & Talent, Ashoka Africa, spoke to us on Creating Sustainable Funding for African Entrepreneurs.
Elaborating on funding, she outlined the selection criteria for Ashoka which included: New and Innovative Idea, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, Social Impact, and Ethical Fiber.
The organizers took a phenomenal step by making tents available for the exhibition of different agro-allied ventures.
With the beautiful canopy set up in the tremendous yard of the DayStar Christian Center, Afrimash was privileged to take part as an exhibitor.
Despite the rain shower, participants did not hesitate to visit the various exhibition stands to network and connect during the 45 minutes lunch break.
While everyone savored the pair of sweet corn served as lunch to all participants, we were excited to inform participants on how Afrimash has been helping farmers make farming convenient and easy.
We are enthusiastic about the next edition of the AgriBusiness Africa Conference and look forward to more impact from the Africanfarmer himself while saying kudos to him for putting together such an incredible and well-organized conference. Despite the heavy downpour, the conference was worth every minute of our trip from Ibadan.
One thought on “Afrimash Connecting And Networking At Agribusiness Africa Conference”
Missed this event. Looking forward to the next. Have quantity of neem oil cake to sell. Any links . Thanks