CBi Innovations Ltd.
The business case.
CBi Innovations Ltd. (CBiIL) has chosen to scale up innovations in the grains, dairy and Information and Advisory Services Markets where the largest outreach and income increases were recorded during the BIF project.
The Overall Problem
The overall problem we are trying to address is one of building a self-sustaining private extension/field service organisation that leverages modern technology (both hardware and software) for data aggregation.
This data aggregation enables effective and efficient aggregation of smallholder producers (young men & women) in ways that give predictability and traceability to volumes and quality of production, without adding too significantly to the unit economics of production, whilst being modular and scalable.
What the market needs
There is a need to apply further funding to leverage research, analysis and technology to take innovations from the BIF project to national scale in Nigeria in order to make a significant contribution towards reducing income poverty in Nigeria. For this reason, we have established CBi Innovations Ltd.
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The market continues to search for an effective and efficient aggregator of smallholder producers that gives predictability and traceability to volumes and quality of production, whilst being modular and scalable.
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We pay particular attention to how this can be used to leverage Nigeria’s huge female talent pool in the marketplace.
The average farming age
Furthermore, average age of Nigeria’s crop farmer is now about 52yrs while the average age of Nigerians is 18years.
Industrial users of agricultural produce worry that in the space of 5-10 years, the risk that supplies may become unreliable would get stronger and industry yearns to see 18-35 year olds take up modern agribusiness ventures, replacing their ageing parents who saw farming as a vocation.
The birth of CBiIL
CBiIL started business formally April 1, 2020 (though incorporated since September 2017 and has carried out some pre-commencement activities since September 2019 such as purchasing systems and implementing software on them).
The year end of March 31st was chosen to be in concert with the onset of rains in Nigeria as most agriculture is still rain-fed.
The company has an authorised share capital of N200million of which 77.5% is fully paid-up.
Our mission
71% of the world’s population are in the low-income bracket – living on less than $10 a day, and in the poor bracket – living on less than $2 per day. The number of people living in such poverty in Nigeria has risen significantly from an estimated 44.5 million in 1985, to approximately 82.5 million in 2009.
The situation is believed to have deteriorated further due to subsequent economic recessions. In 2009, 46.8 million poor Nigerians lived in rural areas where the main livelihood is small scale agriculture.
Given this context, BIF Nigeria chose to intervene in agricultural markets – dairy, maize, cassava and aquaculture – with information & advisory services as a cross-cutting enabling market – in the hope that stimulating change in one market system might produce synergy and multiplier effects across other markets.
Meet the Team
Our diverse team of experts brings a range of skills to tackle multifaceted challenges effectively.
