mDairy

Nigeria had a cattle population of 20 million in 2018, accounting for 1.36% of the global total and making it the fourth-largest cattle population in Africa after Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization. Of the country’s total herd, 11.5% is used for diary, while 88.5% is consumed as meat. Most of the cattle in Nigeria is found in the northern region states of Kaduna and Kano. Most cows are local breeds, representing over 90%, while the remainder comprises cultured breeds imported from the Netherlands and South Africa. It is these breeds which are mainly used for dairy production.

Milk output of nomadic herds is usually lower than that of cattle managed in specially built units where feeding is controlled. On average, cows in Nigeria have a maximum weight of 300 kg and produce about 1.5-2 litres of milk daily, compared to Kenya where cattle weigh between 700 kg and 1000 kg with daily milk production of 30 litres. Domestic milk production increased by 6% between 2014 and 2018, to reach a total output of 641,000 tonnes in 2018. This rise is not enough to keep pace with consumption, which grew by approximately 8% from 943,000 tonnes in 2014 to about 1 million tonnes in 2018. The country spends between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion annually on milk and dairy imports to make up for the shortfall in local output, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The current dairy consumption of the Nigerian is low nevertheless the demand for dairy is increasing as the population grows and the awareness for the need for improved nutrition increases. In addition, the demand for dairy of 1.3 million tons cannot be met by the local production. There is supply gap of 600,000 metric tons. Despite all the economic opportunities that exist in the dairy business, Nigeria still spend about $1.3 to $1.5 billion annually in importing milk and its product.

 In the Fulani culture, the men owns the cows and women owns the milk. Sadly, many of the women are still unbanked and largely excluded from the formal financial services. Nearest bank or ATM in most rural communities where they do their business are miles away and often not structured to support their business or meet their needs. Subsequently, the lack of digital milk data recording platforms disconnect most dairy farmers from using their historical data to access credits, economic opportunities or subsidies to boost their businesses. Most stakeholders also lack access to relevant data to be able to plan effectively and provide tailored intervention to dairy farmers which could help improve their business.

mDairy helps dairy companies profile, record, process, track and pay dairy farmers for milk supplied through mobile application and web data dashboard. 

mDairy has 4 major features:

1. Farmers profile: helps dairy companies profile (name, age, sex, number of cows, number milking cows, number of cross bred cows) and geo tag the location of their farmers. This helps create a digital identity for their farmers and allows them to make business decision when their farmers are aging out.

2. Milk Recording: This digitizes the milk recording process which was previously paper based. Now dairy compenies can record both online and offline daily milk supplied at the click of a button. It also helps them have access to robust milk data for insights and management decision making.

3. E-payment: This allows dairy processors to easily make payment to dairy farmers who are traditionally unbanked.

4. Web data dashboard: This provides real-time milk data for dairy companies to enhance program planning and decision making. Also, dairy farmers can use their historical data to access credits to expand their business.

These features helps improve the efficiency, accountability and trust of the dairy value chain. In addition, it places the right tool in hands of dairy processors and farmers to improve their business but more specially to enhance the economic and financial viability of women dairy farmers. When women earn more, they spend more on their families.

Our solution serves dairy companies who source raw milk from millions of dairy farmers majority of whom are women in Nigeria. mDairy allows dairy companies to easily profile farmers supplying milk to them. This creates a digital identity for the farmers and enables them to access tailored services and interventions to boost their business, improve their livelihoods and market access. Also, it enables them digital record, keep and track their day to day milk sale. These data can help them access further credits from financial institutions or government to boost their business. The e-payment enables them to receive payment for milk sale in their wallet. This enables financial institutions to access their credit worthiness in a way that is equitable, appropriate and convenient for them. They can be able to plan, monitor and track their payment and expenses. Currently millions of dairy farmers in Nigeria are unbanked and lack access to digital tools like mDairy to transform their business and improve their chances of accessing needed financial support to scale their business. However, mDairy is changing this story one dairy farmer at a time in a way that is inclusive, engaging and transformational. 

mDairy has a diverse team with requiste skills, experience and expertise in technology development, dairy management, product and business development and research. The co-founder of mDairy Gbadegesin Alawode has over 5 years of experience working in the dairy sector both in Netherlands and Nigeria. Before the development of mDairy, a baseline study to under the pain point of the dairy compenies, farmers, aggregators and milk collection officers. He also engaged in several dialogue with key dairy farmers leaders within their communities.  Using human centred design approach, their feedbacks were incorporated into the design and release of mDairy. This leads to buy-in and high level of ownership from all stakeholders within the dairy value chain. He has successfully piloted mDairy with FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC and 2Scale. As part of its makreting strategy, Gbadegesin provided 20 smart phones to female dairy farmers in Oyo State. This dairy farmers are ambassadors of mDairy within their communities using their experience to convince other farmers of the benefits of mDairy (https://guardian.ng/news/firm-...).

One dairy comapny and over 1000 dairy farmers

I am applying to Solve to be able explore needed partnership and support to scale our services to potentials users both in Nigeria and other African countries like Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania and Sudan. I will be able to receive personalized support in financial, legal, funding and media needed for my business to succeed and expand. Currently my company has no monitoring and evaluation impact framework, hence the Solve program will equip with the knowledge to design and implement one.  Additionally, I will be able to acquire skills and strategies to overcome market barriers in forging new partnerships with dairy companies as well as facilitating expansion to my business. The peer communities of likeminded social impact leaders will help nurture me to build long lasting relationship and partnerships. 

The leadership and strategic advice from leading social impact experts will help build my leadership journey. Likewise, the coaching sessions, pitching and media exposure will help build my confidence and enhance the visibility of my business. The funding and investment will support me with the resources to scale my business and impact beyond Nigeria. 

mDairy is innovative as because it is fisrt digital infrastructure for dairy companies and farmers in Nigeria. we provide a bundled tech based, data driven and payment solutions to dairy companies and dairy farmers using mobile and web-based technology. mDairy is able to generate identity for farmers, digitize, gather and synthesize milk records data and ease payment to the farmers at scale. Previoulsy, milk records were paper based which is grossly inefficient, cumbersome, time consuming and prone to errors. Data could easily get missing leading to loss of vital information.

Additionally, we help dairy companies and farmers make sense of this data through data analytics and visualizations so they can make informed business decision to aid the growth of their business.