Manilla Investments

We have devised an Agribusiness Cluster (ABC) Model coupled with technology in a bid to ensure increased crop yield, scalability, sustainability and profitability across the cassava value chain.

The cluster is a multi- actor network encompassing all the actors across the value chain - the farmers, the local microfinance bank, transporters and our technical partners, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture. The cluster will create the capacity to respond effectively to changing market circumstances and increase competitiveness in the larger market.

The technology will encompass a mobile agri-wallet: a mobile phone application enabling farmers to save money for procurement of agricultural inputs as well as an app to help farmers understand Cassava agronomy, weed management, herbicide application and seed production.

If scaled globally, this solution will increase farmers’ productivity and efficiency, strengthen their capacity for innovation and improve the image of these groups across society with their rise in incomes.

Market analysis  undertaken by Tridge intelligence puts global production of cassava at 277.10 Million tons. Nigeria is the leading producer of Cassava (20.6%). followed by Thailand (11.2%) and Indonesia (7.5%).

 Across Africa, cassava is grown mainly by smallholder farmers. It is widely consumed as a staple food in contrast to global market trends where given its versatility and high starch content, cassava is used in industrial processing for the manufacture of many products.

A study by Dalberg and the sustainable trade initiative  estimates a realistic, addressable demand for cassava  industrial products across Nigeria to be 1.8 million MT by 2020. In 2019, against this backdrop and in a bid to reduce the $600 million spent annually to import cassava derivatives, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced foreign exchange restrictions for the importation of starch, syrup, ethanol and other raw materials from cassava.

The specific problem is thus moving farmers up the value chain by moving away from consuming cassava as food to processing the cassava to starch and other derivatives thus earning a higher income.

My solution is to combine an Agribusiness cluster (ABC) model with technology. This combination will catalyze a lasting change in market conditions in order to achieve and sustain outcomes at scale.

The Agribusiness cluster (ABC) is designed to identify stakeholders across the cassava value chain and over time build strong synergistic relationships across the value chain through collaboration and co-innovation amongst the value chain actors.

For instance, a problem farmer’s face is lack of access to funding. To combat this, we have entered into a partnership with the local microfinance bank to offer loans to farmers that undergo training. The training will be carried by another member of the cluster, The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

Another problem farmer’s face is lack of understanding of cassava agronomy. We will design a mobile app with IITA. The App will educate farmers on cassava agronomy, high yielding stems to use, herbicide application and weed management.

We will also design an agri-wallet with the bank. The agri-wallet will be an ICT based savings system for anticipating the purchase of inputs that helps farmers avoid using their savings for other purposes in between harvest and the start of the next farming system.

The model aims to be inclusive and empowering by focusing on broad based economic growth across women and young people in the rural areas we operate. By focusing on rural areas we will be countering recent trends of urban bias in economic growth. We will emphasize equality of opportunity in terms of access to markets, resources and productive opportunities. By steadily increasing the productivity of labour of these excluded groups, we will create wealth through the following means

• Raising the income levels of women and youth
• Imparting business skills
• Strengthen their capacity for innovation
• Growing the financial independence of women and youth
• Steadily improving the image of these groups across society with the rise of their income levels whilst inspiring their peers
• Capacity building across technical skills (i.e. post-harvest management) and soft skills (i.e.  economic analysis)

To achieve this, we engaged in a series of workshops to understand the key constraints faced by farmers in rural areas.  We then outlined and these constraints such as:

• lack of access to funding
• Poor knowledge of cassava agronomy
•  High transport rates in moving harvested cassava from the farm to processing plants.
• High percentage of manual labour involved in growing cassava
• Problems  securing product off-takers due to poor quality of  cassava grown

Our business model was then built utilizing the input and advice of all parties across the value chain (such as farmers, transport companies, mechanized equipment providers, banks and off-takers) and deploying technology to facilitate operational efficiency, reduce costs , build scale, foster relationships and impart training.

By navigating between different stakeholders, the model, through collaboration and co-innovation, helps bridge interests which might not be aligned, helps foster skills development and capacity building of the farmers. Finally, the combination of the model and technology helps farmers access funding.

Locally grown Cassava grown is of poor yield and is consumed by the farmers’ households. This leaves little room for productive output, income, scale, economic opportunities and economic growth.

By combining a business model with technology, I get farmers to increase their yield. This is then sold to my Starch processing plant, a guaranteed off-taker. We pay wages to farmers thus creating economic opportunities.

The processing company hires local labour imparting knowledge, technical skills and paying wages.

The processing company will be scaled to produce other derivatives of cassava. Thus, productive output is increased and further economic opportunities created.

I have purchased a five hectare factory for the food grade starch processing plant.

I have secured 150 hectares of land in Anambra state where the cassava will be grown for backward integration to ensure a steady supply of raw material to the processing plant.

I have signed a technical agreement with the International Institute for Tropical Affairs (IITA) to teach and train the farmers on cassava agronomy. An app will be designed to further disseminate the teaching and training.

I have signed an agreement with the local microfinance bank, Castle Microfinance Bank, to fund farmers that have undergone the training by IITA and to also build a savings app which will help farmers save an agreed portion of their income towards purchasing seeds and herbicides.

I have entered into negotiations with transport companies for transporting cassava stems from farms and starch to customers.

The relationship between actors across the cassava value chain is often disjointed with a lack of synergy, collaboration and co-innovation.

The proposed Agribusiness Cluster (ABC) Model creates an opportunity for the actors across the cassava value chain and service providers to coordinate and professionalize their activities, align their interests and collaborate in an efficient and cost effective manner.  ABC will build a synergistic market structure based on long term collaborations and co-innovations.

This model is complemented by technology to increase productivity, efficiency, mitigate risks, ensure cost effectiveness, efficiency and wider dissemination of solutions.

The technology cuts across growing cassava and processing cassava into starch. In growing cassava, farmer’s often lack an understanding of cassava agronomy. We will design a mobile app that will educate farmers on cassava agronomy, high yielding stems to use, herbicide application and weed management.

In processing cassava we will support the functioning and growth of our out-grower operations with an e-monitoring app called Farmforce.

Farmforce uses GPS technology to track farmer’s yields and monitor their needs in terms of extension services. The app can predict the yield and date of harvest for each individual farm, allowing us to oversee our supply.

In combining the business model and technology we plot a pathway to scale based on mitigating business risks and linking our vision to market realities. This combination serves as a bridge between subsistence agriculture and agro-industry and will serve in catalyzing a lasting change in current subsistence agricultural market conditions

Year 1:

Hectares of Land farmed: 190

Number of farmers in Out-grower scheme: 40

Number of employees in Processing Plant: 23

Estimated Local demand: 500,000 tonnes

Installed Processing capacity: 10 tonnes per day

Conservative estimate of capacity utilized: 2.4 tonnes/day

Daily Hours of operation: 18

Number of days of operation: 7

Uptime: 80%

Time per production cycle/Minutes: 296

Number of cycles/day: 3.65

 Starch produced per cycle/kg: 658

 Production of Starch /tonnes in Year 1:  876  ( 876,000 kg)

Year 2

Hectares of Land farmed: 250

Number of farmers in Out-grower scheme: 60

Number of employees in Processing Plant: 28

Estimated Local demand: 500,000 tonnes

Installed Processing capacity: 10 tonnes per day

Conservative estimate of capacity utilized: 3.2 tonnes/day

Daily Hours of operation: 20

Number of days of operation: 7

Uptime: 80%

Time per production cycle/Minutes: 328

Number of cycles/day: 3.66

 Starch produced per cycle/kg: 874

 Production of Starch /tonnes in Year 1:   1,168 (1,168,000 kg)

Year 5 :

Hectares of Land farmed: 400

Number of farmers in Out-grower scheme: 150

Number of employees in Processing Plant: 50

Estimated Local demand: 500,000 tonnes

Installed Processing capacity: 10 tonnes per day

Conservative estimate of capacity utilized: 6.4 tonnes/day

Daily Hours of operation: 24

Number of days of operation: 7

Uptime: 80%

Time per production cycle/Minutes: 392

Number of cycles/day: 3.67

 Starch produced per cycle/kg: 2,027

 Production of Starch /tonnes in Year 1: 2,336 (2,336,000 kg)

The indicators we will use to measure our progress are centred around Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Four metrics will be measured :

• Hectares of land utilised

• Processing Plant capacity Utilization
• Production cycles
• Annual Starch Production

Hectares of land utilized

The hectares of land utilized as part of the backward integration strategy will determine the level of feedstock the processing plant receives. An adequate level of feedstock ensures the plant is operating at optimal capacity. With the use of high yielding cassava stems, proper herbicide application and a proper weeding  programme, it is estimated that a hectare of land will produce 20 tonnes of cassava .

Year 1:

Size of land: 190 hectares

Tonnes of Cassava grown : 3,808

Year 2:

Size of land: 250 hectares

Tonnes of Cassava grown : 5,000

Year 5:

Size of land: 500 hectares

Tonnes of Cassava grown : 8,00

Processing Capacity Utilization

With higher  processing capacity utilization, our cost per unit of starch produced reduces ensuring cost savings can be passed to customers by way of lower prices .

Year 1  : 3 tonnes/day

Year 2 : 4 tonnes /day

Year 5 : 8 tonnes/day

Production cycles :

The higher the number of daily production cycles, the higher the production efficiency, starch output and revenue.

Year 1: 3.65

Year 2: 3.66

Year 5: 3.16

Annual Starch Production/ tonnes

Year 1 : 876

Year 2 : 1,168

Year 5 : 2,336

Head Office

Ten people work fulltime. Our duties encompass strategy, marketing, financial modelling, content development for digital tools.

Out-grower Farm

The backward integration scheme growing and harvesting cassava will commence with 40 farmers working fulltime.

Processing Plant

23 workers will work full time to process cassava to starch.

Ike Uzokwe graduated from Leeds University UK (2:1) and holds an MBA from Durham University, UK. He began his career as a broker for Marsh Mclennan, London. He later joined Accenture UK as a business consultant.

He is currently the Managing Director of Manilla Investments Limited, Nigeria. Under his direction, Manilla was voted by Access Bank as a top 5 SME in Nigeria.

Obiadinma Chukwuma graduated from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria with a bachelor’s degree in botany and a Master’s degree in Pharmacognosy. He is an experienced field research agronomist with experience in Plant Breeding, Agronomy/Crop production, Plant Physiology, Agribusiness and Phytochemistry. He is currently a training officer in the cassava commodities value chain of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

Frederick Scheurs is the CEO of the Business Incubation platform of the International Institute for Tropical Affairs (IITA).  He is involved in setting up pilot plants and seed companies across several commodity value chains including soya, cassava and rice.

His experience includes Director, New Business, ASTEC Global, a seed and food security company in the Netherlands, Business Director, Germains UK, a biotechnology and food security company and Division Manager GPOV Palm Plantation Surinam.

Marcos Antonio Dalevedove has twenty five years of experience in large scale farming. He was Project Manager for the 3,000 hectare corn and Peanut Group BP farm in Minas Gerais, the 3,000 hectare Buriti Farm in West Baino, Brazil and the 20,000 hectare Soya beans  plantation in Floril Farm, West Baino, Brazil.

Our values of diversity, equity and inclusion are built around three areas:

• Improved access to talent
• Enhanced decision making and depth of consumer insight
• Strengthened employee engagement

Our top leadership team is split equally between genders: 2 men and 2 women. Furthermore, we have instituted workplace policies such as putting in place a nursing corner for easier assimilation into the work force for new mothers.  We also have a four month maternity leave policy on full pay in place with the option of discretionary extensions on a case by case basis.

We are focused on entrenching gender equality in our workplace which for us means equal access to opportunities irrespective of gender.

For our out-grower scheme, 60% of farmers will be female in a bid to reduce wage inequality in rural areas and empower women. We have put in place metrics and a tracking system to ensure that female farmers acquire technical and business skills including financial literacy. Those who have acquired these skills are then given larger plots of land to cultivate and earn higher incomes. We have also negotiated with the microfinance bank to create a banking product for married female farmers  in order for them to gain financial independence by safely and conveniently saving their income without having their husbands take their earnings as is the normally the case in rural areas . This happens as a lot of women in rural areas do not operate bank accounts and end up keeping their money at home. 

I am applying to Solve as it has tapped into the well spring of creativity and innovation across the globe. It has helped foster growth and profitability across myriad businesses through its strategic and innovative approach of mentoring, evaluation and access to impact minded leaders across industries and sectors.

Being accepted into the Solve programme will enable my team realize our vision of being the bridge between subsistence and agro-industry through the combination of our business model and technology.

We hope to secure funding, expertise, support and mentorship from Solve.

One of the barriers Solve can help me overcome is our high cost of power. I would like to gain access to renewable sources of energy to run the processing plant. Currently, power from the electricity company is unreliable and the processing plant will run predominantly on diesel. This increases our unit cost of production and is unsustainable in the long run with rising diesel prices

I would also be interested in obtaining information on new agricultural practices in increasing the yield of cassava grown per hectare. For instance in Brazil, yield per hectare for cassava is about 40 tonnes per hectare compared to 20 tonnes per hectare in Nigeria under best agricultural practices.

Human Capital: Being a member of Solve would give me access to a global wealth of talent . Human capital is the critical key to success for most businesses and is at the fore front of our desire to continually grow our business and gain strategic advantage over our competitors.

Business Model: Business models continually evolve in the world business with changes in the economic, social and regulatory fields. Being a member of Solve would expose me to the best possible business model fit for my company. This would enable us to respond effectively to changing market circumstances and emerging opportunities to maintain and increase competitiveness in the larger market.

Technology: access to cutting edge technology has in recent years been one of the key areas where businesses have been able to differentiate themselves from competitors and gain competitive advantage. It has also enabled businesses to become more efficient and effective .Access to industry leaders in Technology at Solve would be an invaluable experience for myself and the company

I would like to partner with organizations which enhance the quality and yield of crops  , companies which are passionate about reducing income and gender inequality  as well as  improving the lives and livelihoods of low income households.

These companies can make available to me a host of potential solutions across the technology, business models, research and innovation fields.

These companies can also help in advising the proper funding model for a young company such as ours.

Across Northern Nigeria, the activities of Boko Haram has internally displaced people and made them refugees within the country. The majority of these refugees are women and children.

I believe my business model encompassing an Agri-business cluster and technology is an opportunity to empower these women by giving them the ability to learn technical and business skills which would help in raising their incomes and improve their livelihoods.

 Soya beans, ginger and corn which are local to Northern Nigeria could be the crops chosen for the pilot programme. IITA already has a wealth of experience growing and harvesting these crops and the Cassava learning app can be amended to suit these options.

My solution for improving the lives and livelihoods of female farmers by using a combination of technology and business model in raising their incomes falls within the scope of this prize.

The mobile app technology is deployed across giving  these farmers access to technical, business and financial skills in an accessible and equitable manner  to help increase their productivity and efficiency in growing cassava.

The skills gained from these learning tools are then used as a “collateral of sorts”   by our microfinance banking partners when assessing loan applications from these female farmers.

My solution for improving the lives and livelihoods of female farmers by using a combination of technology and business model in raising their incomes falls within the scope of this prize.

The mobile app technology is deployed across giving  these farmers access to technical, business and financial skills in an accessible and equitable manner  to help increase their productivity and efficiency in growing cassava.

The skills gained from these learning tools are then used as a “collateral of sorts”   by our microfinance banking partners when assessing loan applications from these female farmers.

The innovation for women prize can help in funding building content for the mobile app used in disseminating knowledge amongst female farmers in our out-grower scheme for other crops such as Soya and corn.

By doing this, we exponentially grow the number of women whose lives and livelihoods are improved using technology.

My solution for improving the lives and livelihoods of female farmers by using a combination of technology and business model in raising their incomes falls within the scope of this prize as my solution leverages both data from the teaching material content and machine learning by using a mobile app to reach the widest possible  female audience

The mobile app technology is deployed across giving  these farmers access to technical, business and financial skills in an accessible and equitable manner  to help increase their productivity and efficiency in growing cassava.

The skills gained from these learning tools are then used as a “collateral of sorts”   by our microfinance banking partners when assessing loan applications from these female farmers.

The innovation for women prize can help in funding building content for the mobile app used in disseminating knowledge amongst female farmers in our out-grower scheme for other crops such as Soya and corn.

By doing this, we exponentially grow the number of women whose lives and livelihoods are improved using technology.

My solution for improving the lives and livelihoods of female farmers by using a combination of technology and business model in raising their incomes falls within the scope of this prize as my solution leverages both data from the teaching material content and machine learning by using a mobile app to reach the widest possible  female audience

The mobile app technology is deployed across giving  these farmers access to technical, business and financial skills in an accessible and equitable manner  to help increase their productivity and efficiency in growing cassava.

The skills gained from these learning tools are then used as a “collateral of sorts”   by our microfinance banking partners when assessing loan applications from these female farmers.

Working in conjunction with us, the microfinance bank is developing an agri-wallet which is an  ICT-based savings system for anticipating the  purchase of inputs that helps farmers avoid using their savings for all kinds of other purposes in between harvest and the start of the next farming season

The innovation for women prize can help in funding building content for the mobile app used in disseminating knowledge amongst female farmers in our out-grower scheme for other crops such as Soya and corn.

By doing this, we exponentially grow the number of women whose lives and livelihoods are improved using technology.