At the UN World Food Programme Zero Hunger Sprint, Nigerian agri-tech firm Zowasel received US$100,000 in funding from Guinness Nigeria and Promasidor Nigeria, a large pan-African consumer packaged food maker.
Zowasel is an agricultural technology startup that is working to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly value chain that will benefit communities, people, and the environment.
The startup has a network of over 1.5 million smallholder farmers in Northern Nigeria and has recently expanded its operations to the Niger-Delta region to help smallholder farmers in the oil palm and cocoa value chains.
The “Zero Hunger Sprint” was created by the United Nations World Food Programme as a platform for innovators to put their ideas into action in order to end hunger by 2030.
The purpose of the initiative is to provide agriculture companies with additional resources to help them advance their innovative ideas.
On July 30, at the inaugural 2021 Zero Hunger Sprint event in Lagos, Zowasel secured two contributions totaling $100,000 from a total of $250,000 in investment commitments from five business organizations.
Zowasel will participate in a six-month support program thanks to sponsorship from Guinness and Promasidor.
It also offers customer acquisition possibilities, as well as agreements with Guinness and Promasidor to add to its roster of marketplace off-takers and users of its supply chain traceability and sustainability software.
“We are ecstatic that two industry heavyweights, Guinness Nigeria and Promasidor, see us as worthy of investment; we are even more ecstatic about the opportunity, faith, and confidence placed in our organization. Jerry Oche, co-founder and CEO of Zowasel, said, “We look forward to working and partnering with these fantastic firms to understand their sustainability goals, supply chain, and traceability needs.”
Zowasel has so far worked with national and multinational agricultural processors to create a platform for local crop sourcing and global commodity export.
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