Agribusiness in Nigeria is booming in recent times due to the increased awareness of the need for food security and sustainable food production in the country. Some agribusiness companies in Nigeria have risen to this and made tremendous strides in the Nigerian agribusiness industry.
These companies have exploited technology and innovations, an understanding of the people and the drive to meet a need/impact lives to build a booming industry in the most populous African nation. They have not just thrived for solving problems, they have also impacted a great number of people to a better livelihood directly and indirectly.
Top Agribusiness Companies in Nigeria
In no particular order, here is our list of the top 10 agribusiness companies in Nigeria;
Flour Mills of Nigeria
Flour Mills of Nigeria is a household name in the Nigerian agri-space. Powered by a vision to be the leading food and agro-allied group in Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria has interests in almost all the departments of Agriculture. As a result, FMN farms and work with farmers across the value chains.
Their strides in Agri-inputs, processing, offtaking and farming are designed to produce and supply products of superior quality and value to the market, thereby, enriching the lives of consumers, customers, communities, employees and all stakeholders.
Flour Mills of Nigeria has been around for a long time and their impact in the Nigerian agri-space is indelible.
OLAM Nigeria
OLAM Nigeria’s drive cannot be hidden! With offices and operational units across all geopolitical zones of Nigeria, OLAM has a wide and growing network of farmers, suppliers, wholesalers, local buying agents (LBAs), customers and service providers. Today, these networks encompass approximately 500,000 farmers and have created tens of thousands of jobs in indirect employment. OLAM’s quest to create living landscapes where prosperous farmers and thriving communities live in harmony with healthy eco-systems seems to scoring points.
In 2013, OLAM invested in a 10,000-hectare farm with integrated mill which directly employs 950 people from the surrounding communities. The farm also supports an ‘out-grower program’ whereby surrounding rice-growing communities are supported by the Olam farm with training, pre-finance, fertiliser, and seeds in order to improve their paddy yields. Currently, 7,000 farmers are engaged in the program aimed at producing rice for the domestic market thereby boosting self-sufficiency.
Babban Gona
Babban Gona is one of the biggest aggregator companies in the country. They provide four key services required for smallholder farmer members to be successful including Financial Services, Agricultural Input Services, Training & Development for farmer groups and Marketing Services. These services are rendered in the hopes of helping 1 million smallholder farmer members make more money by 2025.
Another thing we appreciate about Babban Gona is that they serve their members in ways that minimize negative environmental impacts. This is a win for sustainable agriculture.
Stallion Group
Stallion Group is a respected rice-processing company. They go further to provide seeds and other inputs for farmers to encourage rice cultivation. They also buy back the produce from the farmers.
Stallion has established world-class rice mills at strategic locations, to promote milling locally in Nigeria. The company works with the farming community and encourages them to use the most recent technologies and practices in farming for increased local production of paddy and other Agric-based products and thus fosters food sufficiency.
Besides rice production, Stallion Group is involved in sesame farming, seeds, and fertilizers.
SeedCo Nigeria Limited
SeedCo Nigeria Limited is a seed production and distribution company that has made a huge impact.
They develop and market certified crop seeds, like hybrid maize seed, cottonseed, wheat, soya bean, barley, sorghum and more. These seeds are designed to add real and consistent value, giving farmers the opportunity to have food surplus, resulting in a good standard of living. Seed Co’s hybrid seeds boost immunity, resistance or tolerance to diseases and reliable high yield performance.
Dangote Group
Dangote is a household name that is synonymous with quality. Although Dangote Group has a sugarcane farm among other produce, it launched a fertilizer business in 2019. Dangote will partner with out-growers (smallholders and contract rice farmers) to cultivate and grow rice paddy and sugarcane.
BUA Group
Besides fertilizers, the BUA Group is big on sugar. The firm intensified efforts to reverse sugar importation into Nigeria, hence, BUA Sugar. BUA Sugar’s primary business is the refining of imported and locally sourced raw sugar. The refinery is structured to generate its own power during the process of converting molasses to sugar. Another win for the environment!
BUA Group is also a familiar name in the cooking oil industry.
Indorama Fertilizers
Indorama Fertilizers is a major urea fertilizer producer and distributor in West Africa. Besides making their fertilizer products available at an affordable cost, Indorama is an innovative company that is passionate about boosting crop productivity for farmers. They do this to help to minimize the food grain deficit in Nigeria and other countries.
In fact, Indorama Agronomic Services is focused on making plants grow, with fertiliser and high-efficiency plant nutrients technology. They use their science to create technologies that can optimise farmers’ fertiliser investments. These technologies also provide a one-stop crop management information resource tor the farmers.
This service provides detailed content on crops, best crop management techniques, fertilizers & pesticides and a host of other agriculture-related material to boost crop productivity. Generic information enriches farmers with common topics on agriculture like Soils, Seeds, Nutrients, Fertilizers. It also teaches best management practices for optimum crop production and profits.
Indorama’s fertilizer plant has also generated lots of job opportunities contributing to the economic prosperity of Nigeria.
FarmCrowdy
Farmcrowdy identifies as Nigeria’s First Digital Agriculture Platform that empowers rural farmers. They live up to this promise by providing rural farmers with improved seeds, farm inputs, and training on modern farming techniques. FarmCrowdy goes on to provide a market for the sale of their farmers’ produce. With this, they give farmers the capacity to farm more acres and by extension, increase food production and security in Africa.
Still in its fourth year, Farmcrowdy has empowered over 25,000 small-scale farmers across Nigeria. FarmCrowdy is out to empower local farmers, positively impact their lives and their families while boosting food production and sustainability in Nigeria. They finished 2019 looking good as they bagged the “Africa’s Innovative Business of the Year 2019” award by the British Awards for African Development. They also won the International Award 2019 for “Innovative Ideas and Technologies in Agribusiness”.
AgroMall
Agromall supports efficiency in agricultural production using various digital solutions to optimize best agricultural practices, enhance financial inclusion of the rural economy and foster effective interactions between small holder farmers and other agricultural actors. They exist to make sure that agricultural value chain participants such as farmers, input suppliers, out grower anchors and off-takers work well with each other and achieve results that are beneficial to all and the communities they work in.
Conclusion
These are our top 10 agribusiness companies in Nigeria. We choose them not only because they provide innovative services to both smallholder farmers and the public in general, but also because they have surpassed the profitability of agribusiness in Nigeria to make an impact in the livelihoods of people, directly and indirectly. Finally, these companies have a penchant for sustainability both for the farmers and for the environment. This is very important in the wake of climate change.
