Like most African countries, agriculture is one of Nigeria’s key economic sectors, with a significant percentage of its rural population engaged in farming.
And it is these people that Tingo International has been serving since it launched in 2001. According to Dozy Mmobuosi, Group CEO at Tingo International, the strength of the brand is its relationship with rural smallholder farmers over the years.
“Our strength is in our partnership with rural smallholder farmers. Working with these farmers serves as a foundation to serve every other player in the value chain with ease,” Mmobuosi said.
Beyond serving as a foundation, Mmobuosi further affirmed that working with rural smallholder farmers is the key to building a sustainable agricultural ecosystem in Africa.
Since launch, and especially within the last decade, Tingo International has been effectively serving rural smallholder farmers through a couple of brands under the Tingo International umbrella. One of
the brands is Nwassa, a platform connecting every player in the agriculture value chain. There is also Tingo Pay, which was built for players on the Nwassa platform.
The brand also has Tingo-branded mobile devices for the farmers and other players on the Nwassa platform; payment for the devices is spread over 36 months.
Mmobuosi said that through its brands, Tingo International had served more than nine million farmers and other players in the agriculture value chain over the last decade.
Earlier in the year, Mmobuosi revealed plans to release Tingo Pay to the public, thus making it available for people outside the Nwassa ecosystem. The goal of this move is to make the payment platform accessible to millions of users across Africa.
Present in other African countries, Tingo International currently serves 19 Nigerian states spread across all geopolitical zones; Tingo is present in four violence-prone states in the northern region.
While expressing concern about the unrest in some northern states, Mmobuosi revealed that so far, Tingo’s customers in the violence-prone areas have not been affected by the insurgency.
Tingo’s CEO joined fellow Nigerians to sympathise with farmers who have lost their means of livelihood because of the insurgency, as well as the bereaved.
Mmobuosi concluded that Tingo International would continue to support rural smallholder farmers in every part of Nigerian and its other African markets.
