Agritech start-up set to deliver new financial solution to farmers

By Abbas Badmus

Nigerian agritech startup, Agrikoin, has declared that it is committed to ending the financial challenges confronting small scales farmers throughout the country’s agricultural value chain.

Solacebase reports that Agrikoin is an agriculture-backed Cryptocurrency, created to catalyze financial inclusion within the agricultural value chain. It is also creating a decentralized supply chain that can allow farmers to sell their produce seamlessly to end consumers.

Chief Executive Officer of Agrikoin, Isa Ismail Waziri, told TechDigest in an interview, that the goal of the start-up is to alleviate the financial problems of small-scale farmers through the introduction of its unique digital currency for the entire agricultural ecosystem.

He said: “I came up with the idea of Agrikoin, considering the situation small scale farmers are going through from production to sales. Lack of finance and market access were the motivation behind Agrikoin conceptualisation.

“Agrikoin is unique in such a way that it is the digital currency (electronic money) confined or backed by agriculture in Africa. It is a revolution to the agritech industry. It will address challenges faced by all the stakeholders within the value chain, and it will make the agricultural ecosystem more vibrant and sustainable”.

Waziri praised National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for granting him full sponsorship to participate at the 2021 GITEX Future Stars event in Dubai.

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“It was a wonderful experience, traveling with diplomats as a delegate of my country. Most importantly, I had the taste of the global tech ecosystem and have mingled with people from diverse tech ecosystems and culture”.

The AgriKoin CEO appealed to the federal government and other relevant agencies to provide the necessary support to enable Agrikoin to deploy its distinctive agricultural financial services for the benefit of Nigerians and the growth of the country’s economy.

TechDigest gathered that the minimum viable product (MVP) of the start-up generated 5000 users within 3 months of its launch, an indication that many Nigerian would utilize the new agriculture-based financial solution.

Agrikoin is among the nine tech start-ups that were successfully unveiled by NITDA at the just concluded 2021 GITEX Future Stars Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.