The need to avoid food waste has become extremely important at this time in human history. According to statistics from the United Nations, 17% of the food produced worldwide and a total of 37.9 million tonnes per year in Nigeria is constantly lost from the point of production to retail and consumption. The effect of this is majorly malnutrition among citizens and low income for the smallholder farmers within the supply chain, and food insecurity, especially when considerably very low yields are realized at harvest. 

To reduce this dilemma, Kitovu Technology Company builds and deploys climate-smart farming and post-harvest infrastructure to enable smallholder farmers to increase their productivity, cut down on post-harvest losses, and increase their incomes, thereby filling the gap they saw and impacting the agricultural sector with their solution. 

Their innovation stood them out in the screening process of the just concluded Next Innovation with Japan (NINJA) accelerator program. Out of the 15.1% of 1072 Cleantech companies that applied, they met the criteria as one of the multilayered businesses with limitless potential for growth and partnership. The team is led by their founder/CEO- Emeka Nwachinemere and supported by his reliable staff members. 

To begin providing services to smallholder farmers, their first line of action is first to collect the data of these farmers; collecting details like geo-location data, farmer names, crops gown, and farm size, using the YieldMax app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kitovu.com.ng&pli=1). These data are combined with satellite information and processed to give a precise agronomic advisory, inputs recommendation, and crop health audits throughout the lifecycle of specific crops. 

At harvest, the Kitovu platform provides access to markets for the farmers to sell their harvests effortlessly and at better prices through the eProcure service. Farmers can also decide to store their produce in Kitovu’s Storage infrastructure so as to earn more through market price appreciation. Apart from the personalized agronomic advisory and the end-to-end experience, the farmers don’t have to pay for any of these services upfront. 

As the business engaged different advisors, mentors, and facilitators during the course of the program, there was a shift in the business to focus more on partnership for growth. So, while the program was ongoing, KItovu onboarded over 1000 farmers and over 100 agents. They had introductions to Sterling bank and FCMB, and they are still open to more partnerships to impact and help the African agriculture sector, one smallholder farmer at a time. To partner, feel free to reach them at https://kitovu.com.ng/

So far, they have onboarded over 16,500 smallholder farmers, generating over $250K in revenue. They are working to build a resilient food system for the African agriculture sector, where farmers can earn a decent income from their work. Kitovu Technology Company is raising $500k in debt and $500k in equity, which they plan to channel into product development, sales and marketing, and their unique Buy Now Pay Later Input financing program. This financing would enable them to empower 50,000 more smallholder farmers. Join us to make this happen by sending an email to sato.shohei@jica.go.jp and support@theventurespark.com for more information. 

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