Roland Oroh is the founder and director of the Nigeria Agribusiness Register. In this interview with JOSEPHINE OKOJIE, he spoke about the AgNet initiative and plans to drive foreign direct investments in the agricultural sector through the initiative.
What informed your decision to launch the AgNet initiative?
AgNet stands for agribusiness networking, and this networking is an outreach program of the Nigeria Agribusiness Register. The register came into being to facilitate $3.4 billion in new agribusiness investments by 2023 from domestic and foreign sources, through provision of free and chargeable business development services to capital providers and project promoters. The register is designed to be operated as a private public partnership initiative that will serve five functions. Firstly, to identify and track agribusiness investments that are above $1 million in investment value in some selected value chains. Secondly, to attract and operationalise foreign direct investment projects. Thirdly, provide data and information for measuring employment and inclusive growth in agribusiness demography. Fourthly, to provide business development services to listed businesses to strengthen and support expansion of their operations in sales, distribution, hiring, and management. Lastly, to promote new agriculture technology ventures through incubation support services in partnership with relevant government agencies.
What do you hope to achieve with AgNet?
AgNet is just our contribution to help project promoters within the value chains we are covering to network with alternative capital providers which include, social impact funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, development finance, innovative banking products, diaspora funds, angel funds, blended finance and donor funded grants.AgNet was created to generate pre-qualified, pre-screened agribusiness projects seriously seeking funding and provide a deal room opportunity for pre-screened project promoters to network and engage with fund managers, lenders and investors. AgNet will contribute to realising the $3.4 billion investment facilitation target of the Nigeria Agribusiness Register.
What specific areas of agriculture will the initiative focus on?
AgNet will cover innovations and dynamic business models in agribusiness from primary production, aggregation, and processing including logistics, ware housing and cold storage investment projects. In addition, agricultural technology (agtech), climate smart, gender inclusive, renewable energy (cleantech) projects are encouraged and will be weighted heavily. We are constantly researching the funding side to know what the different funding interests are and what sorts of projects specific fund providers are looking for and then match them with projects in those areas. We also prepare project promoters on basic pitching techniques and support in business plan development and offer other relevant kinds of support.
How will the AgNet initiative benefit farmers, processors, and other actors in the sector?
Ultimately, the beneficiaries will be farmers, aggregators and processors. Finance that is patient and affordable is required to put all the factors of production together to drive growth in the sector. Banks generally are finding it difficult to fund agriculture, though they are trying their best, but more needs to be done so that the potentials of the sector can be realised. Nigeria has 84 million hectares of arable land, out of which only 40 percent is cultivated and only about 10 percent is optimally cultivated. Recognising farmland and agribusiness investments generally as an alternative asset class and allowing long term funding from pension fund assets will greatly benefit farmers and others within the value chain. Farmers will have more options to sell their produce if there are more processing facilities and aggregation centers.
Processors need to develop market channels and distribution networks and promote their brands in domestic and regional markets, considering the possibilities of trading within the ECOWAS regional market and further within the new African Continental Free Trade Agreement with over 1.3 billion African-wide consumers. So ultimately, identifying alternative funding for agribusiness will be beneficial to all.
I am aware this is going to be a monthly event. Are there conditions for participation?
Yes, every month we will take a value chain and scout for promising projects and profile them and produce a Deal Book for the month’s edition of AgNet. The conditions for participation are that you are a project promoter and are seeking for start-up or expansion capital, and you are able to complete our project profile sheet which will be reviewed, pre-qualified and if shortlisted, you will be invited to participate. This month’s edition is focused on the five industries within the agro-inputs sector namely, seeds, fertilizer, livestock feeds, agro-chemicals, and mechanization. Next month we shall be looking at the rice value chain and paddy aggregation centre business in particular.
How do you intend to mobilise all the relevant stakeholders to take advantage of this programme?
We are constantly seeking for partnership from different organisations to enable us mobilise SME project promoters and extend our reach. One key partner for us is the relevant commodity associations whom we partner with to get the list of their registered members. We also use the Agribusiness Register’s listed companies to reach potential participants. We also have partnership with donor funded projects and international development organisations, tapping into their network of companies and individuals to reach out.
