Lola Masha is the executive director for corporate services at Babban Gona Farmer Services. She holds Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from University of Virginia and doctorate degree in the same discipline from University of California, Berkeley.
Babban Gona in Hausa language means ‘Great Farm’. It is a high impact, financially sustainable and highly scalable social enterprise, which franchises thousands of mini farmer cooperatives across Northern Nigeria. It trains these farmers, provides them with credit and inputs, including market access. In this interview, Masha tells ODINAKA ANUDU, Start-Up Digest editor, that her firm plans to make 1 million farmers richer by 2025.
Tell us in detail why you set up Babban Gona.
The vision that is Babban Gona today began in 2012 as an agricultural, socially responsible enterprise. Our mission was to end insecurity and to solve the rapidly rising youth unemployment indices within the country. A major contributing factor towards our company’s inception in 2012 was the urgent need to solve the oversaturation in the Nigerian workforce— an occurrence that still threatens to double over the next two decades. Statistics show that in the last 20 years, 20 million young people have entered the workforce, and Nigerian youth unemployment is at 60 percent. If an approximate 20 million job seekers triggered the Niger-Delta militancy, the Fulani herdsmen crisis and Boko Haram, the mere thought of what will happen when over 80 million youths enter the labour market in 20 years’ time indeed caused us to ask questions around what we could do to create an economic buffer to halt the spread of insecurity by unlocking the power of agriculture as a job creation engine.
We succeeded in discovering a way of putting an end to the vicious circle where vulnerable unemployed youths are recruited into insurgent groups and here we are today, still committed to the vision of job creation, empowerment, growth and expanded incomes for farmers.
You started in 2012. Seven years down the line, what can you say is the biggest achievement of Babban Gona?
From inception, our mission was to break the average farmer out of the vicious cycle of poverty, driven by poor agricultural practices and leading to low yields year after year. We have succeeded through our model to significantly increase the profitability of smallholder farmers 2.5-3 times more than the recorded average farmers produce in Nigeria. Even in the face of the challenging terrain of Nigerian agriculture with climate change, pest
infestation and an uncertain political climate, we are consistently increasing the earnings of our members relative to the national average.
Since we began, we have disbursed up to 140,000 individual loans to our member farmers while maintaining a repayment rate of over 99% percent. We have also expanded our core credit programme to create varied income generating streams for our farmers, one of which is our Women Economic Development Initiative which is spread across multiple locations. We grew to become the single largest maize producing entity in Nigeria in 2015, and in 2017, we were the first for-profit social enterprise in history to win the prestigious Skoll Award. We have been listed by the London Stock Exchange among the 2019 ‘Companies to Inspire
Africa’ and have been featured in Forbes Magazine as one of ‘2019’s Top 5 Most Innovative and Impactful Social Enterprises’.
You have spoken a lot about creating jobs through Babban Gona. Who exactly are your target: Job seekers or passionate farmers?
Our target is both: job seekers and passionate farmers. As I already mentioned, we have a personal mandate to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country and our vision is to recreate the narrative around agriculture and make it an attractive sector to the average unemployed youths. Our offer to them is the opportunity to be gainfully employed, making profit and creating more agri-entrepreneurs through their own businesses. The farmers, on the other hand, are already in the business and know what it entails.
How much have you raised from external sources since you started, and what’s your total investment in Babban Gona?
We have been lucky to have both private sector and public sector investors that have consistently supported us along the way. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose specific figures, but we focus on building a financially sustainable business model to support and grow our small-holder farmer members.
Your profile says that the farmers you serve are part-owners of the outfit. Can you clarify this assertion?
Indeed they are part-owners of the outfit. This is because in creating our model, we put the needs of our farmers at the forefront. It is for this reason that we have a representation of our member farmers on our board. This ‘member first’ consciousness is one of our core values and it drives the innovative products we deliver to our members that dramatically increase their net incomes by directly impacting all the key indices of their productivity such as their yield, input costs and commodity prices after harvest. This increase in net income has enabled members to make significant investments in improving their children’s education, health/nutrition, and invest in additional farm land and livelihood enhancing assets such as home improvements, maize grinding machines, cars, trucks etc. As such, their successes are our successes.
Why did you choose to do this in agriculture, rather than, say, real estate?
We believe that agriculture is Africa’s job creation engine and that Nigeria’s agricultural landscape is still largely untapped, even though it is bursting with possibilities. We saw a chance to create a model that plays a critical role in transforming agriculture in Nigeria.
Through this model, we offer a suite of services to smallholder farmers that help them to overcome the challenges of fragmentation and low economies of scale.
Tell me, what challenges have you faced in the last seven years?
I believe every experience, whether it comes in the form of a challenge or a success, is an opportunity to learn and become better. In working to solve the challenges smallholders face, not forgetting that there will be some over which we have no control such as climate change, we proactively manage and maintain the efficiency within our systems—changing and adapting where we need to and constantly being innovative in our bid to achieve excellence.
Do you need more investors in Babban Gona? How much do you think you need to double your impact?
Yes, we do. Having more investors will go a long way in helping us achieve our target to offer innovative products to our members that will dramatically increase their net incomes and directly impact all the key indices of their productivity such as their yield, input costs and commodity prices after harvest. Looking at how far we have come through our service offerings, we welcome more investors and strategic partners to join us in our mission to make more money for more farmers.
What is your target in the next 10 years?
Our goal is to make 1 million farmers richer by 2025. So, in 10 years, we believe that number will have increased exponentially. We hope to see millions of young, agri-entrepreneurs owning their ‘mini Babban Gona’ franchises and creating a positive net effect on the Nigerian economy.
Are you satisfied with the current state of the agriculture sector?
There is a lot of potential that is still left untapped in the agriculture sector, especially with
respect to technology, marketing and unstable prices which impact the welfare of the farmers. It is known that the majority of Nigerian agricultural production is performed by smallholder farmers. Yet, despite being the backbone of the agricultural sector, the majority them remain impoverished, earning less than $2/day. In particular, in northern Nigeria, where the Babban Gona Agricultural Franchise is focused, farmers face extreme poverty.
I believe a focus on increased investment in the agricultural sector is key. Also key is the need to understand and move with the trends, especially with technology in ensuring that the sector becomes better. I believe that by taking the right steps in the right direction, the latent potential, especially in agriculture in Nigeria. will be achieved.
You are yet to reach the entire northern Nigeria. When will you reach all other states that you are yet to cover?
It is a process that we are willing to work our way through. We are scaling rapidly. Sustainable change is a process, and our vision is unrelenting. Through our strategic partnerships, we will be equipped to meet the needs of the entire region and even beyond.
Tell me, how much have you given to smallholder farmers so far? What do you do to ensure the money you give out is returned?
We ensure that our farmers pay back the loans by putting in place strong risk mitigation systems, which has allowed us to maintain repayment rates of up to 99 percent. This is also the reason why we can price our credit to our members at a significantly discounted interest rate compared to traditional microfinance that have historically delivered credit at 30 percent to 60 percent APR.
