At the UN World Food Programme Zero Hunger Sprint, Nigerian agri-tech startup Zowasel won US$100,000 in funding from Guinness Nigeria and Promasidor Nigeria, a leading pan-African consumer packaged food manufacturer.
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 earth.
It has a network of over 1.5 million smallholder farmers in Northern Nigeria, and it just begun operations in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria to support smallholder farmers in the oil palm and cocoa value chains. It works with national and multinational crop processors to provide a platform for local crop sourcing as well as worldwide commodity export.
The “Zero Hunger Sprint” was developed 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 goal is to provide agricultural startups with additional resources to help them accelerate their ideas.
At the 2021 Zero Hunger Sprint inaugural event, held in Lagos on July 30, Zowasel received two investments worth US$100,000 from available $250,000 investment commitment from five corporate organisations. The funding from Guinness and Promasidor will see Zowasel take part in a six-month support programme. It also provides customer acquisition opportunities and partnerships with Guinness and Promasidor to join its list of marketplace off-takers and users of its traceability and sustainability software across the supply chain.
“We are glad two giants in Guinness Nigeria and Promasidor find us worthy of investment, we are even more excited about the opportunity, trust, and confidence bestowed upon our company. We look forward to working and collaborating with these amazing companies to understand their sustainability goals, supply chain, and traceability needs,” said Zowasel co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Jerry Oche.
