Photo by Farmcrowdy
Photo from onyeka.ng

Onyeka Akumah

Founder & CEO

Farmcrowdy

POSITION

Founder & CEO

COMPANY

Farmcrowdy

COUNTRY

Nigeria

Website

Onyeka Akumah

SCENE

Business

SOCIAL

LinkedIn

Twitter

What makes Onyeka Akumah a Global Shaker?

Onyeka Akumah is the founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform. Founded in 2016, the startup connects small-scale farmers to investors to increase food production. Over 25,000 farmers have been empowered by receiving improved seeds, farm inputs, training on modern farming techniques and a marketplace to sell their produce through the platform.

In 2015, while considering investing in agriculture, Onyeka realised that several challenges plagued small-scale farmers throughout the country.

“While [the farmers] were talking, I noticed that they had certain challenges they were facing — access to funding, technical know-how to improve their yields, and market access to sell whatever it is they produce,” he told Pulse by Business Insider. So, that then became for me an opportunity to see how I could connect these farmers with so many other people interested in investing in agriculture beyond me, that were constantly told by this (Nigerian) administration to invest in agriculture…Connecting those people with the farmers we had identified was how the idea for Farmcrowdy was born.”

In 2018, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari awarded Farmcrowdy the National Productivity Order of Merit in recognition of its creative and innovative contributions to economic growth and development in the country.

Onyeka is also the founder and CEO of Crowdyvest, an platform focused on addressing the 17 United Nations SDG Goals across Africa by providing impact-driven investment opportunities; and the co-founder of PlentyWaka, a bus-hailing and sharing platform. He was also the founder of Azonim, a full-service internet marketing company.

The successful serial entrepreneur gives back to the local community through his mentorship efforts in the startup scene and the STEM field.

Onyeka earned a bachelor’s in applied information technology at the Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences.

Tags: Africa, agriculture, AgriTech, Farming, Investment and Funding, Nigeria, travel, United Nations

Last updated: May 24, 2020