Onyeka Akumah has announced his exit as Chairman and Shareholder at Farmcrowdy, a global Agri-tech company focused on solving inefficiencies in the food value chain.
Speaking on the exit in a statement to Farmcrowdy staff, Akumah said his tenure at Farmcrowdy was a very challenging and fulfilling time which saw so much sacrifice, sleepless nights, hectic travel schedules, fun, tears, laughter, innovation, creativity and time spent building one of the most respected brands in the Agriculture and Technology space in Africa.
“I have now stepped down as the Chairman of the Board of Directors after five years of serving in this capacity, the implication of this is that I no longer have ties with Farmcrowdy and going forward, it will be led and managed by Akindele Phillips and Ifeanyi Anazodo. I wish them well as they build the next chapter of the company,” Akumah said.
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He added that it was not a walk in the park to change how people saw agriculture and believed in its capability to build a business from in the technology space, all of which he was grateful to have accomplished.
During his tenure at Farmcrowdy, Akumah led the company through significant milestones which include closing a $2.4 million in equity investments, acquiring Best Foods in 2020 and changing the way Africans saw Agriculture with his famous quote that “Agriculture is trendy for young people to build businesses”.
Beyond these major achievements, Farmcrowdy was the second startup from Nigeria to get into Techstars Atlanta and win the Presidential Award which was conferred with the National Productivity Order of Merit award by President Muhamadu Buhari in 2019.
Farmcrowdy initially started out as a crowdfunding business which focused on boosting food security in Nigeria. It crowdsourced from individuals and corporates, via its online platform before it fully pivoted to a digital agriculture platform focused on these six businesses – Farmcrowdy Structured Finance, Farmcrowdy Insurance, Farmcrowdy Marketing, Farmcrowdy Tech & Data, Farmcrowdy Foods and Farmcrowdy Aggregation.
Going forward, Akumah will continue to lecture at the Rome Business School where he teaches Entrepreneurship & Marketing to MBA Students leveraging his background in Software Engineering and over 16 combined years of experience in the corporate and startup world including Deloitte, British Council and GTBank.
Onyeka was an early employee in renowned startups like Rocket Internet’s Jumia, Tiger Global’s funded Wakanow, Konga and Travelbeta. He has exited two of his startups and for his entrepreneurial passion, will focus on growing his two-year-old transportation start-up Treepz Inc.
Treepz Inc is building Africa’s largest shared mobility platform, using technology to offer predictable, structured and accessible transportation services for every African on their daily commute. With Operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, Treepz Inc is set to disrupt the transportation sector with unique services such as shared daily and travel rides.
Along with his tenacious team, he plans to grow and expand its operations across 8 African countries within the next 12 months.
