THE AFRICAN SPARK - FROM PERIL TO PROSPERITY
We stand at a precipice in Africa. On one side, a shadow looms, the shadow of rising insecurity. Researchers tell us armed conflict has surged sevenfold in a single decade. A chilling statistic. But why? What fuels this fire?
We believe that as oxygen is to fire, so are unemployed youth to insecurity. And this continent, vibrant and full of potential, is also teeming with unemployed youth. Consider Nigeria alone: a wave of 20 million young people entering an already saturated labor market in just two decades. The result? Skyrocketing youth unemployment, a despair that has tragically fueled not one, not two, but three insurgencies. My friends, the ground trembles beneath our feet.
And the challenge deepens. With a median age of just 18, over 80 million more young Nigerians will seek to join the workforce in the next 20 years, 400 million across the African continent. If just 20 million entering the Nigerian workforce in the last 20 years triggered three insurgencies, I ask you, what will four times that number unleash? Some have called this a 'ticking time bomb.' I tell you today, that bomb has already exploded. We are living in its shock wave.
But what if I told you that within this crisis, this very explosion, lies the seed of Africa’s greatest transformation?
What if I told you there is a powerful solution, a pathway not just to peace, but to unprecedented prosperity , a prosperity built by the very kind of innovators and visionaries African Business Heroes seeks to uplift?
This is the challenge before us – stark and urgent. But here is the extraordinary opportunity, the "what could be," and I invite you to join me on this journey to make it happen! Imagine with me, an Africa where we truly unlock the number one job creation engine:
AGRICULTURE
Picture an Africa where our smallholder farmers are not merely surviving, but thriving. See them as the proud backbone of a trillion-dollar agricultural industry, an industry that feeds nations, powers economies, and restores dignity.
Envision a continent where the hands that once might have been idle, or worse, drawn to conflict, are now skillfully tending the land, innovating, and building futures, embodying the resilient, impact-driven spirit we see in every African Business Hero.
But let us be clear: that is not the African agriculture we see today.
Today, much of Africa’s agriculture is trapped. It’s a cycle of low farm productivity, starving the demand for quality inputs. It’s a system where our agro-industries often rely on costly, often substandard, supplies from afar. This broken value chain, this web of inefficiency, stifles growth. It chokes life out of economic potential and limits the wealth creation that should rightfully flourish across our continent.
Millions of farmers, like a young man called Saminu that we have had the privilege to serve whose parents, work relentlessly yet as Saminu told me they have ‘babu’ – nothing, lacking cash for quality inputs, forced to sell their hard-won harvests at fire-sale prices, losing up to half their potential earnings.
This is the reality that drove a young son Saminu, from his village. He saw his parents’ struggle and left for the city, a motorcycle taxi driver on a tattered machine, borrowed from his uncle, you know one of those motorcycles where the wheels are more patches than tires, his days shadowed by constant fear.
Fear that losing his motorcycle meant destitution, anger, and perhaps, the desperate path of insurgency. But what if Saminu’s story didn’t end there? What if his fear could be transformed into hope through the same kind of bold, grassroots solutions that African Business Heroes champions?
Inspired by my own grandfather, a poor small farmer in America who found his way out of poverty through farmer cooperatives, and by studying successful models worldwide, we knew the ingredients: committed grassroots leadership, professional management, and the investment to scale.
Africa has these committed grassroot leaders. We simply developed a model, Babban Gona – 'Great Farm' – to bring the other two pieces to them. It wasn't easy.
Our first year in 2012, when I moved to a small village in Northern Nigeria, a region seared by insurgency, we failed our first year recruiting less than half the farmers we hoped to. Only 100 brave souls. But we persevered. We kept our promises. Trust grew. Word spread. And look what became possible! With an incredible team and dedicated partners, Babban Gona became the single largest maize producing operation in Africa. We’ve cumulatively served over half a million small farmers, more than doubling their yields and their net incomes compared to their peers.
And crucially, nearly half our members are youth. Young women and young men like Saminu, displaying the very resilience and innovative spark we celebrate here today through initiatives like African Business Heroes. With advice from his farmer Saminu returned. He joined us at Babban Gona. He received training, a comprehensive package of services, access to mechanization – all on credit. At harvest, he marketed his corn through us, and every quarter – bam, bam, bam – profits. Three years later? Saminu bought two goats for his mother to start a goat rearing business, owns a retail shop, and not one, but two motorcycles, proudly displaying vanity plates 'Babban Gona'!
My Friends, this isn’t just a story; it’s a blueprint. We call it the Community Agricultural Finance Institution - CAFI Model.
Instead of the daunting task of lending to individual, dispersed farmers, we empower trusted local farmer leaders—our Community Agricultural Finance Institution to manage groups of up to 100 farmers. This is the "what could be" in action, a system that works. But how do we take this from one success story, from half a million, to tens of millions?
The key, my friends, is technology. Our white-labeled Agri-Finance-as-a-Service – AFaaS – technology ecosystem. Built by Africa’s largest tech team dedicated to small holder farmers, over 80 individuals strong, AFaaS integrates AI, biometrics, advanced credit scoring, ERP systems, and predictive analytics. It’s what empowers banks and agri-processors to simply and instantly replicate the Babban Gona model, offering embedded finance without needing to build new skills or teams.
Think of it: with this tech platform, smallholder farmers get credit for essential inputs. Their productivity often doubles, their profitability soars. Broken value chains mend. Growth accelerates. Economic potential is unlocked for everyone – for the farmers, for agro-processors, for banks, for entire nations.
This isn't a theory. We’ve deployed over a quarter-billion dollars in financing with an unprecedented default rate of less than 1%. We’ve farmed 170,000 acres of maize in a single season, an area the size of 12 manhattans, making us the single largest maize producer in Africa. Our repayment rate, powered by AFaaS, is over 99%! Agri-finance for smallholders is profitable, it is scalable, it is transformative.
Yet, without this intervention, without this technology, without this new way of thinking, what happens? Farmers remain trapped in low yields. Agri-processors struggle for reliable, quality supply. Banks see agriculture as too risky. Youth see no future in the soil. The cycle of poverty and insecurity grinds on. That is the "what is" we are determined to change.
My friends, the scale of the opportunity is breathtaking. In the next 20 years, nearly 400 million Saminus will enter Africa's workforce. Half, potentially, could find their future in agriculture. To unlock this, to empower them through models like ours, would require $150 billion in financing per year.
A vast sum?
Yes. But consider this: if we tap global commercial debt, it’s merely 0.1% – just 10 cents out of every $100 circulating in global debt markets. And our model is designed to attract commercial investors. We've proven it's high-impact and profitable, leveraging social investor debt to de-risk operations and crowd in 3 to 4 times more commercial debt.
Imagine Africa, not just feeding itself, but becoming a global agricultural powerhouse!
A continent powered by the ingenuity of its entrepreneurs, the kind of heroes of this initiative, African Business Heroes, tirelessly seeks, spotlights, and supports.
Take Nigeria: on just 6 million hectares, we produce 12 million tons of maize. But if every one of those farmers achieved the average Babban Gona yield
– a direct result of better inputs and practices enabled by agri-finance
– Nigeria would demand Dangote's entire fertilizer output for maize alone and catapult it to become the world's 4th largest maize producer, just behind Brazil!
This from only 7% of Nigeria’s arable land! This isn’t a pipe dream; it’s a calculation based on proven results. This transformation can happen in countless African countries, across numerous commodity value chains. As we march towards serving 1 million farmers by 2025, we know there will be challenges. But our commitment is absolute. And this is where you come in.
You, the heroes who can unlock this $150 billion. You, who have the power to provide the tools, the "elixir," for millions like Saminu.
This is the essence of what African Business Heroes stands for – empowering those who build, those who innovate, those who dare to dream of a better Africa.
Let us pause for a moment!
Imagine a world where a young man like Saminu no longer lives in the fear that losing his tattered motorcycle means turning a descent into a life of crime or terror. Instead, picture a world where millions of hardworking, ambitious young men and women across this incredible continent have real, viable, dignified options. A world where their energy and talent build, not destroy. A world brimming with the success stories that the African Business Heroes prize helps bring to light. I know these driven young people. They will make the right choice, if given that choice. We can realize this world. Indeed, we must realize this world.
But it requires all of us, every single one of you, to give them that choice.
At Babban Gona, we're not just imagining an Africa where agriculture thrives and youth prosper, we are meticulously, passionately building it, farmer by farmer, innovation by innovation.
Now, I invite you. Join us. Be part of this extraordinary transformation.
Help us impact 50 million smallholder farmers by 2043 across the African continent.
Let's choose, together, to build that world.
Let's ignite the African Spark, fueled by the courage and vision of Africa’s own Business Heroes.
Thank you
