On December 3rd and 4th, 2025, the agricultural spotlight in Nigeria shone brightly on Ibadan as key players across the food and agribusiness value chain gathered for the Oyo State International Agribusiness Summit 2025. Hosted at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), this year’s Summit brought together government leaders, investors, innovators, and farmers to shape the next phase of Oyo State’s agricultural transformation.

Among the organisations leading these conversations was Afrimash, proudly representing the future of accessible and technology-driven farming.

Organised by the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), the Summit is part of a comprehensive strategy to expand Oyo’s economy through agricultural industrialisation. 

The event showcases investment-ready projects, scalable value chains, and enabling policies aimed at turning agriculture from subsistence farming into a vibrant agribusiness ecosystem. 

It also features exhibitions, networking sessions, panel discussions, a tour of the agribusiness transformation hub, and engagements with key decision-makers and investors — making it a fertile ground for innovators like us. 

At this 2025 edition, the Summit projected even greater scale: about 70 exhibitors and over 5,000 participants, underscoring Oyo’s ambition to become a regional agribusiness hub. 

Also, the Summit served as the platform for the unveiling of the new “Certification Mark” for home-grown produce,  a mark of quality and authenticity for goods cultivated within Oyo. This reflects the government’s commitment to quality, traceability, and standards in the state’s agricultural produce system. 

Making Farming Accessible – AVA and USSD

For our company, the Summit offered an ideal platform to demonstrate how we are helping make farming more efficient, inclusive, and accessible — particularly through two key tools: AVA and USSD.

AVA: Our audio-visual agriculture tool, designed to provide farmers with guidance on best farming practices, access to information on crop cycles, mechanisation, market prices, and agritech innovations. By leveraging AVA, farmers can gain knowledge even if they are illiterate or have limited access to formal training.

USSD: Recognizing that many farmers in rural communities may not have smartphones or reliable internet access, our USSD service offers a simple, phone-based gateway to agricultural services and inputs. Through USSD, farmers can access information, place orders for seeds/fertilizer/equipment, schedule mechanisation services, or connect with service providers, all with basic phones.

These innovations show our alignment directly with the Summit’s emphasis on technology and data systems, a pillar identified by the state governor as central to the future of agribusiness in Oyo. 

Our Impact For Farmers, For the Future

Our presence at the Summit alongside banks, investors, agritech entrepreneurs, processing-hub developers, and government stakeholders sends a strong message: agriculture in Oyo is no longer just traditional farming; it is an evolving, tech-enabled ecosystem.

For farmers, our tools make farming more accessible and less dependent on manual processes or costly intermediaries.

For agribusiness investors and stakeholders, AVA and USSD demonstrate a scalable, inclusive model for outreach and service delivery.

For Oyo State’s economy, such innovations help actualize the state’s ambition to industrialise agriculture, boost output, reduce post-harvest losses, and add value along the entire food supply chain.

Looking Ahead: What Comes Next

As the Summit highlighted, Oyo’s agribusiness roadmap includes expanding the network of industrial hubs (such as in Fasola, Ijaiye and Eruwa), strengthening infrastructure, bolstering post-harvest storage/processing, and integrating technology and data systems across the value chain

In that light, our tools, AVA and USSD, are well-positioned to contribute meaningfully to this transformation: facilitating farmer education, enabling easier access to inputs/inputs-services, and improving the efficiency and transparency of supply chains.

We are optimistic that after the exposure and connections made at the Summit, our company will further collaborate with government agencies, private investors, and farmers accelerating adoption of tech-driven farming across Oyo and beyond.