Johnsons Agro Processing Enterprises

According to UNDP, Sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the most nutritionally insecure people in the world.   

More so, demand for food of a growing population is a major global problem, more than a third of food is lost or wasted in post-harvest agricultural operations. Reducing the waste after harvest, especially in developing countries, can be a sustainable solution to increase food availability, reduce pressure on natural resources, eliminate hunger, and improve farmers’ living conditions.

Johnsons Agro Processing Enterprises is working to add nutritional value to most staple foods being consumed in sub-Sahara Africa.

Our solution is processing of staple foods such as Garri, Cassava flour and Maize flour using state of the art equipment from start to finish. We source our raw materials through provision of high yield cassava stems, maize grains and fertilizers to smallholder farmers who in turn sell the cultivated crops to us for processing

Having carried out an extensive research on Traditional food processing, we arrive at the following problems to be addressed:

What is/are the problem(s) we are trying to solve? Millions of poor homes in Sub Sahara Africa lack access to nutritious meal, most of them consume meal that is processed under poor hygienic environment which expose them to infectious diseases such as Lassa Fever. Smallholder farmers on the other hand lack access to high yield crops as well as post harvest losses they incur due to lack of processing equipment      

When does the problem arise? Problem associated with poorly processed staple foods has been for a long time and arise as a result of much demand for these commodities especially in urban areas.

Where does the problem arise? The problem arise from local food processors where they still make use of old and traditional means for processing. As well as the use of low yield seedlings by smallholder farmers which results in poor harvest and post harvest losses   

What causes the problem? This is as a result of much demand due to increasing population and local producers are doing everything to meet up with the demand. And absence of processing equipment

What Our Solutions Do? This solution is processing staple foods such as Garri, Cassava flour and maize flour by using state of the art equipment for the production. The process ensures that from start to finish of the production will be done by the machine and eliminate manual processing that leads to substandard production. The solution will also provide high yield cassava stems, grains of maize and fertilizers for smallholder farmers who will in turn cultivate and sell the raw materials back to the company for processing.

Besides, our solution is to ensure that smallholder farmers use best and quality high yield Cassava stems and that is why our strategic partners, Niji Farms will be providing varieties of cassava stems to us for onward distribution to smallholder farmers such varieties as:

TME 419, TMS 1632 and Vitamin A (Yellow) Cassava which guarantees high yield and return on investment for smallholder farmers.

Why Our solutions Will Do Well? The solution will do well because it ensures food security in the country as well as West Africa sub region. The population of Africa grows in Geometric Progression while Food production is in Arithmetic Progression. It also ensures food availability and sustained income

We are targeting smallholder farmers that will provide raw material. More so, we are also targeting middle and low income earners residing in rural and urban poor settlements as they as the one that mostly consume staple foods.

We understand the needs of smallholder farmers based on their post-harvest losses and will engage them through cooperative societies, farmer’s union and government agencies such as Raw Material Research & Development Council of Nigeria. We are currently working on forming an alliance with organizations that deal directly with smallholder farmers in order to purchase their (smallholder farmers) products through the organizations.Our strategic partnership with Niji Farms will ensure availability of high yield Cassava stems such as TME 419, TMS 1632

In the aspect of consumers, our solution will solve the problem associated with eating under processed, unhygienic, malnourished meal. Having understood their problem especially in urban poor where under processed food flood the open market. Our solution will address their needs based on the innovation we are introducing which is adding nutritional value such as: zinc, Niacin, Thiamine, Riboflavin and Vitamin A as well as reducing the carbohydrate content as against 100% carbohydrate with no nutritional value currently in the open market.

The problem, solution and target population are aligned with the challenge as it is a social enterprise that address sustainable food system.

With fermentation process we are introducing during processing high carbohydrate contents, poisonous substances contained in cassava and other substances are grossly reduced as well as nutritional value that we are introducing.

Smallholder farmers are empowered through the provision of high yield Cassava stems and fertilizers at a highly subsidized rate as well as purchasing the cultivated crops back from the for processing.

The processed food are therefore supplied to urban poor and rural areas using structured supply chain

We identified a key issue in Agribusiness especially lack of improved seedlings and Cassava stems for rural smallholder farmers as well as absence of nutritional contents in most staple foods being consumed in Nigeria and indeed West Africa sub region.

Our innovation is in the connection of different dots within the ecosystem and applying proven technology in new ways through innovative distribution. Such innovation includes improved processing from start to finish by using state of the art equipment as against the use of manual and traditional means which is unhealthy and cannot meet the demand of ever increasing population.

Specifically, this means taking innovations in agricultural sector down to rural dwellers through partnership with Enugu state Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development that will provide technical and other support such as mobilizing rural smallholder farmers through farmers cooperatives that will cultivate the crops and in turn sell the crops back to us for processing. Besides, we are producing an affiliate product for the consumers this is the one we are selling directly to final consumers which will come in 5 and 10kgs. While the product we will sale directly to retailers will come in 25 and 50kgs.

This innovation ensures food security, improved nutritious meal, direct and indirect job creation and empowerment of smallholder farmers by once more making farming business attractive as well as reduce rural urban migration.

Johnsons Agro Processing Enterprises utilizes core technologies such as creating a web Application and have all smallholder farmers subscribes for supplies and receive information on improved seedlings and other items needed for cultivation.

Our web page will create a dashboard for each smallholder farmer that subscribes, this will enable him/her monitor his/her activities. We will also send SMS message to  our suppliers (Smallholder farmers) and customers.

Our state of the processing equipment ensures from start of the production to finish, is done by machine and this eliminates manual labor that sometimes leads to substandard production.

weigh bridge and scales will be introduced to weigh the raw materials before purchase in order to know the actual weight.

We also crate eCommerce site for marketing of our products. 

Software and Mobile Application is a commonly used technology which is classified as any other Apps. This App are intermediaries between we (the producers) and suppliers (smallholder farmers).

The App will facilitate the buying and selling deal, transactions, current update of agribusiness related activities that will be of help to smallholder farmers and shipping of product purchased. This Apps is another technology within the e-commerce category that is exclusively specialized in marketing of our products.

Besides, the production equipment will work as we have already commence discussions with DOINGS a Chinese firm that will fabricate and install the equipment. And we are currently working on our Web Applications and eCommerce site that will soon be ready.  

This solution is expected to have impact on the problem we are addressing in Nigeria and Sub Sahara Africa such as:

a. Improved nutritional content on most and widely consumed traditional staple foods such as Garri, Cassava flour and Maize flour

b. Making Agribusiness interesting and profitable for smallholder farmers as there is a ready made market for their products unlike in the past where they experience post harvest losses.

c.Ensure food security as our state of the art modern processing equipment will improve on mass production of staple foods that can go round the country and indeed the West African sub region.

The continent of Africa with its 52 countries is one with incredible opportunities in the face of many challenges. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the most nutritionally insecure people in the world.

The definition of food security set out at the 1996 World Food Summit stated that “food security exists when all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. For many years, food security was simply equated with enhancing the availability of food, and was linked to innovations in agricultural production. While food availability is clearly important to achieving food security, having the means to effectively access and utilize quality food remains central to good nutrition. The issue of access to high quality nutritious foods has become a major challenge for many individuals living in Africa. Most diets, in sub-Saharan Africa consist mainly of cereal or root staple crops.

To meaningfully incorporate the nutrition elements into the concept of food security, it is important ensure “adequate protein, energy, vitamins, and minerals for all household members at all times”. But going beyond just food intake to include health and environmental factors, nutrition security is when a household has secure access to nutritionally processed food. 

Currently we are serving a community of 500,000 where we are using as a pilot scheme to test run our products.

In the next one year, we will be serving the entire Abuja and neighboring cities with estimated population of 4 Million

While in the next five years we will cover the entire Nigerian population of about 200 Million and some Sub Sahara African countries.

• Market Expansion: In the next one year we will be aiming to expand our market to most parts of the country through a well structured supply chain with food retailers, departmental store and eCommerce platforms.

• Network with Smallholder Farmers: we are currently in talks with Enugu state Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on technical support and as well assist in mobilizing & Networking smallholder farmers in various rural communities for the cultivation of crops that will be used in processing. This process will empower rural smallholder farmers and make farming business attractive even for young individuals.

• Expansion and Construction of state of the art modern processing equipment that will ensure processing from start to finish without any manual means of processing that will be involved. This will ensure well processed products that will be healthy for consumption.

• Service improvement: we are aiming on mastering all agriculture markets across sub Sahara Africa so as to design products/services that best fit each market's dynamics and needs.

• Adding Nutritional Contents: During processing, we will add nutrients to all our products and this is one of our major objectives and our Unique Selling Proposition. This actually differentiates us from our competitors. 

The  main barriers currently exist for me to accomplish my goals are:

•   Barrier of Accepting the Product at First Time: Since most consumers are already familiar of consuming local way of processing staple foods, most of them will still hold on the old idea and it will take a long time for them to change.

•   Cost of production: The cost of production will be considered when fixing the price for the product and care will be taken not to fix the price far above that of the competitors. So the business may run into risk of fixing the product below the cost of production.

•  Competitors: this may pose as barrier as local production of stale food pose as competitor along with other alternative types of processed food already in the market. This is a barrier that my idea may face but with enough research already conducted I will surmount the challenges.

• Market Entry Barriers: We have to consider and deal to those things that will serve as barriers when entering the market such as competitors, consumer's preferences and pricing. Research will be conducted on how to deal with these barriers and once identified and achieved, our idea idea will be more successful.

Our plan to overcome above mentioned barriers are as follows:

1. Finance: This will enable us to purchase most of the materials needed for the production. The idea needs a lot of technological components such as different types of fabricated machine like cassava peelers, grinding machine etc. All these requires finance (Capital) to purchase them.

2. Knowledge of the Market: Having a good knowledge of the market will also make our  idea more successful,we have a good knowledge of our target customers, their preferences, income etc. Including how to locate and distribute our products to the consumers at the right time.

3. Differentiate our Products from that of Competitors: Our Unique Selling Proposition is adding nutrients to our products as well as developing an affiliate brands for final consumers and another brands for retailers. The affiliate brands will be in 5and 10 kg that an average consumer can afford while 25 and 50kg brand is for retailers which they will resale to final consumer. This is applicable to our three products: Garri, Cassava flour and Maize flour. 

1. Mr. Ani Johnson (Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer)
2. Mr. Roland Richardson (Business Development Manager)
3. Barr. Ajike Ukonu (Legal Adviser)
4. Mrs. Ani Charity  (Food Technologist)
5. Mr. Paul Iyafeheke (Sales & Marketing)
6. Mr. Uduma Ojo  (Software & Mobile App Developer)
7. Prince O.U Kalu (Consultant Technician)
8. Mr. Christopher Chukwu (Research & Development)

Currently we have:

5 Full time Staff

7 Part Time Staff

2 Contractors

We have a strong and diverse team ranging from Food Technologist, Business Development expert, Sales and Marketing, software & Mobile App developer, etc.

MD/CEO: Ani Johnson has several years of experience in Food processing industry having undergone trainings local and international on the aspect of processing traditional staple foods consumed in sub Sahara Africa.

Roland Richardson: He is a seasoned Business Development expert and Mentor.Currently he is the managing partner of ThinkBiznes, a business development firm based in London United Kingdom. He is responsible in formulating business ideas and how to successfully implement our innovation. 

Uduma Ojo: He is a professional software developer. The profession he has been into for over 10 years. He is currently developing a prototype for the Mobile and Web Apps that will be used for this enterprise. 

Ani Charity:She is a graduate of food science and micro biology at University of Nigeria Nsukka.She is well experienced in the nutrients that will be added while processing. Her responsibility is suggesting right nutrients to be added. 

Barr. Ajike Ukonu:He is a professional lawyer with over 8 years experience.He is responsible in incorporating the enterprise, registration of patent rights and trademarks as well as applying for certification of the products at various regulatory agencies.

Mr. Paul Iyafeheke: He is a Digital Marketer and Social Media expert. His duty is marketing of the company's products through digital means as well as conventional marketing. 

We are currently working to partner with Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. They will be responsible in providing technical support and mobilization of smallholder farmers in rural communities for the cultivation of crops will will serve as our raw materials.

Besides, we are also in talks with Raw Material Research and Development Council of Nigeria on providing an improved Cassava stems and Maize grains that will be distributed to smallholder farmers that will ensure high yield.

These two government agencies will provide the needed technical support as well as the Chinese company Doings that will handle construction, Training and  installation of the processing plant.

We are already in talks with our various partners and at the same time concluded an agreement with some of them.

Our business model providing smallholder farmers with improved high yield Cassava stems,Maize seedlings and fertilizers at a subsidized rate for cultivation who will in turn sell the harvested crops back to us for processing. This is done when respective smallholder farmers subscribed in our software and mobile Applications. We only attend to smallholder farmers that subscribed in our platform.

On the aspect of consumers, we will use various supply chains such as eCommerce, Retailers, Departmental stores etc. to get to the final consumer. well sell our products at markup cost plus 10-15% on the total cost.

We are applying for this challenge to ensure food security and nutritious meal in most widely consumed staple food in Nigeria and other sub Sahara Africa. This aligns with sustainable food system of Solve challenge. 

Our solution is providing smallholder farmers with high yield cassava stems, maize grains and fertilizer at a subsidized rate for cultivation and sell the same crops back to us for processing.

We will then process the Cassava into Cassava flour and Garri and maize grains into Maize flour which is a popular meal in sub Sahara Africa.

In order to make it more unique, we will ferment the cassava to reduce high carbohydrate content, add nutrients such as Vitamins, Niacin, Riboflavin etc. to make nutritious.

Besides, we are using state of the art high tech equipment to process the products from start to finish without any manual means unlike what is obtainable in the past. This is to make it more hygienic and healthy for consumption. The machine will also ensure mass production of our products in a large quantity.

To ensure its success, we are  already in talks with Raw Material Research & Development Council of Nigeria and Enugu Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development on technical support  as well as mobilization of smallholder farmers for the project.

Our solution is feasible as sale of subsidized grains, fertilizers and stems to smallholder farmers as well as sale our finished products to final consumers and retailers will ensure our financial sustainability. 

We need partners and support on: Legal or regulatory matters, Board Members & Advisors, Production/service distribution, Solution technology Marketing, Funding & Revenue model, Media & Exposure, Business model.

Our reasons for partnership in the above mentioned area is to come out with viable and feasible business strategy that will ensure this project succeeds.

This project requires expertise from different fields in order to be successful. That is why we are desirous of partnering technocrats and professionals in Agribusiness Industry to ensure that this project is a success.  

We will like to partner with MIT Solve Initiative in order to help to advance our solution. We need assistance in the following areas:

• Business Modelling and Development
• Solution Technology
• Funding and Revenue Models

We also look for partnership with Organizations and Agricultural Research Institutes that can provide high yield Cassava stems and  Maize grains that will be distributed to smallholder farmers at a subsidized rate for cultivation.

We also look out  for partnership with Engineering companies in fabricating machines that will be used for processing  

This solution is meant to impact lives of rural dwellers and refugees. The cultivation of the crops is being done by rural dwellers and technical support is being provided. This will provide jobs for thousands of rural dwellers and refugees as well as economically empowers them.

This innovation is a social enterprise meant to improve and revolutionize farming and food system in sub Sahara Africa where greater number of the population rely solely on subsistence farming for survival especially among rural dwellers and refugees.  

The prize money will be used by our team to advance our solution through the purchase of Processing Equipment, Purchase of High yield Cassava Stems and maize Grains that will be distributed to smallholder farmers, Purchase of Factory Site and other Costs. 

This solution is a profit solution that is capable of touching millions of lives in Sub Sahara Africa.

It is profit in nature as the processed food will be sold in consumers, although at a subsidized price. And Nigeria and indeed other Sub Sahara African countries account of about 300 Million Population which is enough market for the products.

The Future Planet capital Prize will be used by my team to advance our solution by purchasing state of the art processing equipment, Installation of the Equipment, Purchase of Improved Seedlings and Cassava Stems that will be distributed to Smallholder Farmers for cultivation, Purchase of Land for Factory site and other Costs.