Tingo Mobile, a leading Agri-Fintech company operating in Africa, announced that it has provided a 3 Billion Naira (approximately USD $6.5 Million) loan facility to the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (“AFAN”) for the primary purpose of cultivating 3,000 hectares of new farming land for rice and wheat production.
The loan will also be used to accelerate the onboarding of AFAN’s warehouses to the Tingo Mobile partnership with Prime Commodity Exchange (“PCX”) and AFAN as part of its target to achieve a network of 80,000 warehouses in two years, as announced on April 26, 2023.
The newly developed 3,000 hectares of agricultural land is projected to yield an extra 6,000 Metric Tons of wheat annually and an additional 16,000 Metric Tons of rice annually. This increased production is estimated to have a combined market value of USD $17.5 million per year.
As the initial step in a series of planned financing and production agreements with AFAN, with the intention to cover various crop types, the Company anticipates that this arrangement will become a significant source of supply for Tingo Foods’ processing business, which in turn will provide finished food and beverage products to both domestic and international markets. Additionally, the Tingo DMCC business will benefit from direct exports. The strengthened partnership between the parties, facilitated through AFAN’s role as the umbrella organization for all 56 recognized commodities and agricultural associations in Nigeria, is expected to bring substantial value to the overall Tingo group eco-system.
Furthermore, AFAN’s utilization of a portion of the facility to expedite the inclusion of more warehouses into the Tingo Mobile, PCX, and AFAN partnership is also deemed highly valuable to the Tingo group. This expansion of warehouses not only enhances Tingo Mobile’s infrastructure, goods handling, and logistics capabilities, but also broadens the access of Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC to agricultural produce through the right of first refusal agreement for goods received in these warehouses.
The diverse aspects of the new financing and production agreement with AFAN are projected to have a significant impact on Tingo’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives, including the augmentation of food production, enhancement of food security, and empowerment of farmers by delivering financial upliftment.
According to Farouk Rabiu Mudi, President of AFAN; “this significant new investment from Tingo Mobile is a further and very important boost for Nigerian farmers. The funds being provided greatly enhance our ability to cultivate vast areas of agricultural land, delivering significant increases in rice and wheat production. Tingo Mobile’s latest commitment is indicative once again of their invaluable support towards Nigeria’s agricultural development, which we and our farmers are very grateful for. We look forward to the continued deepening and expansion of our relationship with Tingo Mobile as we work together to support Nigeria’s farmers and deliver mutual benefit for all parties.”
Darren Mercer, Chief Executive Officer of Tingo, commented: “We are delighted to extend and strengthen our relationship with AFAN through this agreement. By supporting AFAN and its farmers to cultivate more land and improve crop production levels. We are not only helping Nigeria’s agricultural community, we are also generating more business for Tingo Mobile and delivering more produce to Tingo Foods and our Tingo DMCC export business. This is truly a win-win situation, and one that fits exceptionally well with our ESG commitments.
“Today’s agreement, together with the series of other such deals that we plan to execute on going forward, are yet another means for us to advance our goal of increasing food production levels, while also meaningfully increasing revenues and net earnings across a number of our businesses, which are enhanced by the synergistic attributes of our unique eco-system.
“We are also very excited about the business impact of AFAN’s commitment to allocate part of our loan facility to accelerate their onboarding of warehouses as we expect the enlargement of the warehouse network to materially assist us to reduce crop wastage and achieve higher levels of crop utilization and again further increase the supply of produce into Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC.”
Dozy Mmobuosi, Founder of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, commented: “Today’s agreement is expected to be the start of an important further expansion of our relationship with AFAN, and a major milestone in our ambitious strategy for increasing the food production levels of Nigeria and the wider African continent.
“I am very proud of the dominant position and highly reputable status we have achieved in Nigeria, which allows us to make a meaningful difference towards tackling food poverty and the world’s food security crisis, and towards delivering financial upliftment to farmers.
“As we build on the AFAN and PCX partnership we signed in April, and further develop the recently acquired Tingo Foods business and newly launched export business, we believe we have achieved a level of scalability in Africa’s agricultural industry that has never been seen before. I believe that this in turn will help us attain success as we strive towards our goal of making Africa self-sufficient and a net exporter of food products.”
Tingo Mobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tingo Group, a global Fintech and Agri-Fintech group of companies with operations in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Tingo Mobile has a comprehensive portfolio of innovative products, including a ‘device as a service’ smartphone and pre-loaded platform product.
