The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Africa’s foremost capacity building and start-up investor recently commended Afrimash Limited founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ayoade Ahmed Oyedotun in far away New York, United States of America. Tony commended the Nigerian entrepreneur of showing dexterity and capacity to scale his business from a humble beginning with little seed capital to a big brand today. Afrimash Limited has grown today to become the foremost agritech and eCommerce platform in Nigeria and West African region.
Speaking at an event in New York just after the recently held United Nation General Conference. The event which was focused on why invest in Africa start-ups . Tony Elumelu said “What we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation is to identify brilliant entrepreneurs and empower them with $5,000 non-refundable seed capital and business training to help them turn their business ideas into reality. And look at the results – towards the end of the session, a young man from the audience identified himself as one of the pioneer beneficiaries of The Tony Elumelu Foundation – whose agritech business, Afrimash Company Limited has grown remarkably”
Tony added that “since receiving the seed capital in 2015, to now employing 50 people and serving over 10,000 farmers across Nigeria with farm products. Impact, scale, technology, African solutions – this is what we do The Tony Elumelu Foundation – congratulations Ayoade Oyedotun. You can imagine the joy I felt – this is the motivation for what we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation and just one example of how entrepreneurship can catalyze jobs and transform a continent.”
“With an audience that included many from the diaspora, I highlighted the role those Africans in diaspora must play in transforming our continent by being vocal and holding our leaders accountable for good governance. I reiterated the need for them to be good ambassadors of Africa, as a way of shaping the perception for our continent. I am excited to see successful young Africans – shining a positive light on our continent and encouraging other young Africans that success is equally attainable by them”, Tony concluded.
Over the years, Afrimash Limited has evolved from the simple website platform that deals with agricultural tools, implements and livestock to a household name in the agriculture sector in the country. Today, with an array of technical personnel such as vet workers, agronomist, agricultural engineers etc, Afrimash Limited has intervened in the lives of various farming communities in Nigeria through advisory efforts, reaching out and boosting the farmers access to market and credit. Recently, Afrimash launched an Agent Network and USSD technology to assist farmers that are in the remote areas to have access to quality farm inputs and tools anywhere in the country. This is coming after their partnership with USAID.
ANTHONY EMEKA NWOSU
