Becoming an accountant and working in a financial institution was my deepest desire and ambition as a young woman growing up in eastern Nigeria. My life was planned out and I had set specific detailed goals. I was vocal about it, no one could escape 4 minutes in my company without getting the full details of my life’s ambition; this earned me the epithet ‘bankers’ banker, from friends and family.
When I was in the university majoring in Accountancy, my father education incapacitated and unable to financially support my education. Morphing into a university dropout became a possibility overnight, a scenario I absolutely refused to yield too. I dusted off the last embers of my sheltered life and embraced farming to sponsor my education. I remember the ramshackle shed I constructed with pieces of abandoned wood picked up here and there. With those weakened woods, i built a poultry house. That was my first farming expedition, the proceeds of which made me a graduate of Accountancy.

The National Youth Service Scheme, (NYSC), brought me face to face with my age long dream of working with a financial institution. However, life happened. Overtime, I slowly became disenchanted with the reality of the life I fought valiantly to build for myself. My priorities changed when I became a wife and a mother. I wanted more not only for myself but for my community. I envisioned a future where I would be more available to my family, my kids; I wanted my children to grow up being proud of me not only as their mother but as a person who affected her generation positively. As anyone who had ever been privileged to work in our financial institution would tell you, building and maintaining a successful family com social life is challenging. Leveraging on my experiences as a young poultry farmer and banker, I set out to establish a medium scale farm. Oh it was scary! I was frightened and opted not to get both feet wet! I needed capital for so many things, land being top of the list…fertile land. I utilised my personal savings and I taped into the ever available African network of family and friends to obtain soft loans. I felt the zero interest loan I obtained from family and friends was a conservative risk I could offset from my salary, how wrong I was! Anyway I went ahead to establish my farm at the outskirt of town.

Farming maize was the spectrum end of my subsistence poultry experience, more uncertainty as I could not see what was happening underneath the ground. Remember I was working full time morning and night, on duty every day; but I was determined to make a success of my farming venture; besides, my creditors were already on my neck demanding payback of their cash loans due to unforeseen family emergencies. I became tapped out and financially exhausted paying folks back, coupled with the reality of daily farm expenses. In one of my numerous researches on how to be a successful farmer, I came across the Ministry of Agriculture subsidy scheme, the GES program which was available only to registered farmers. Registered what? I immediately set out to obtain more information and promptly got myself registered as a farmer in Nigeria. The information and assistance I needed was right there all along and I did not know enough to access it. It was during the process of obtaining the farm Impute that I first heard about Tingg.

Initially I was annoyed at having to open a wallet account on a privately operated platform that is not a Bank! I work in a bank and I really truly did not appreciate the hazel, neither do I need a mobile wallet when I have visa and master cards. The company’s representative on ground was very patient with me, I think her name was Becky, anyway; she opened a new agricultural world to me. Becky explained to me that Cellulant corporation is the parent company that created Tingg. and AgriKore. Tingg is more than a mobile payment wallet platform; Tingg. is actually the basic infrastructure of Cellulant which they can configure to be used by any sector to do business. On Tingg. one can access soft loans, make esusu type savings as individual or group, schedule a bulk SMS; with a unique Marketplace where you can register as a merchant and sell your stuff! Like ebay, Amazon and Nigeria’s Jumia and Konga, using the Tingg. unique payment platform to checkout. Tingg. is beautifully integrated and efficient.

Through personal investigation, i found out Cellulant Nigeria developed AgriKore to mitigate the hardships farmers face daily, from finding the right seeds,fertilizers and relevant information; to produce wastage, paste infestation and low market price of farm produce. [url=http[://www.cellulant.com.ng]Cellulant Nigeria[/url] created a unique digital solution with AgriKore. AgriKore is a network of Farmers, Agro dealers, Suppliers, Consumers, Aggregators, Offtakers etc, who interact in a unique marketplace to buy and sell agricultural produce; using the Tingg wallet platform. infrastructure. AgriKore is utilized by Cellulant Nigeria to interact with farmers in a knitted customer relations interactive, keeping the farmers captured in their comprehensive database updated with latest industry news and information. Initially i was sceptical about it all and as a proper Nigerian, i carried out due diligence, on the company and the services they provide; I had been concerned with finding a ready market for my produce after harvest.

AgriKore changed my life! I first accessed a low interest loan from Tingg, with which I paid off my creditors who were almost strangling me. I sold my farm produce right on the AgriKore platform; I received payment on my Tingg wallet. It was surreal! Every stage of doing farm business was concluded right on AgriKore, all I had to do was over see the harvesting of the grains and getting it ready for the delivery guys contacted on AgriKore to pick up. The entire process was seamless, efficient and hassle free.

Two years as a maize farmer convinced me I could farm successfully on the large scale. I broke even financially in my second year of farming, I became financially solvent. I have many people under my employ, my farms offer agricultural studies scholarship to communities where they are situated, I am available for PTA meetings and to affix band aids on my children’s cuts. I quit my job in the financial sector and delved into full time farming. I enlarged my farm holdings and branched into soybean farming as well. yes!, I still keep hens but that is a personal thing to serve my family needs. I received encouragement and inspiration from the CEO and Co-founder of Cellulant Corporation. I still routinely access loans from Tingg and I have never had cause for regrets.

Farming is a worthwhile endeavour for youths and women to engage in, it literally pays huge dividends in every aspect. I would encourage more people to consider farming and to partner with Agrikore to help make the process a little more dirt-free.


Story by Uju.