Nigerian AgriTech Tingo seeks to raise $500m for expansion

Tingo, a Nigerian-focused Agricultural Fintech firm, has announced that it is seeking to raise $500 million through a combination of debt and equity financing via a private placement.

According to the CEO Dozy Mmobuosi, the $6.3 billion company will be using the funds to expand its operations across Africa.

Founded two decades ago, the company is also in talks with the New York Stock Exchange to list on the exchange in the first half of the year. Mr Mmobuosi said that Lazard, a leading financial advisory and asset management firm, has been engaged to advise on the company’s plans.

Tingo is an African Agri-Fintech company, focused on transforming rural farming communities by providing connectivity. It leases mobile devices, which connect growers to access inputs, credit and markets for their produce via mobile-phone applications.

Tingo is currently present in villages across Nigeria, with about 12 million mostly rural-farmer customers. The company leases smartphones and provides an ecommerce platform that’s said to be processing about $4 billion in transactions annually. It earns from the leases as well as commissions and fees from its other services.

Based on a recent partnership with Visa International, Tingo expects its agent network to double to 50,000 providing access to digital payments in rural areas. “Those with our smartphones will be able to access digital visa cards, not just the plastic ones,” Mmobuosi said. 

Mmobuosi says that the company posted a revenue of $594 million in 2020, with Ebitda at $212 million.  

From the new financing, Tingo intends to commit $100 million to a fund that will increase credit to mostly women farmers, Mmobuosi said. The expansion plan involves operations in at least 19 African countries within the next three years.  

“We plan to acquire companies and expand infrastructure that will help us become a pan-African business, delivering the same services we’re delivering in Nigeria in many other countries,” Mmobuosi said. He said that acquisitions will “include a commodities firm and a fintech.” The technology firm with a payments license will combine with Tingo’s current business to become a “phenomenal” operation, he said.

The company’s push to list on the New York Stock Exchange is part of its plan to eventually become a “global company,” according to the CEO. “We are working closely with the exchange and we believe the outcome will be positive,” Mmobuosi said.