Wikipedia

Babban Gona

Babban Gona, which means "Great Farm" in the Hausa language, is a social enterprise organization that provides support for smallholder farmers in Nigeria to become more profitable.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Babban Gona
Company typeSocial enterprise
IndustryAgriculture
Founded2012
FounderKola Masha, Lola Masha
HeadquartersNigeria
Websitewww.babbangona.com

Babban Gona is partly owned by the farmers it serves.[7][8]

History

edit

Babban Gona was founded in 2012 by Kola Masha with the aim of promoting agriculture and reducing unemployment in Nigeria.[1][9] Kola temporarily relocated to a small village in the Northern part of Nigeria, which had been recently impacted by insurgent activities.[9]

At inception, Babban Gona started and provide support for 100 members in Kaduna State, Nigeria.[10] Babban Gona currently has its operations in 15 states namely; Abuja, Adamawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, Plateau and Jigawa states.[11] The company has provided support for over 110,000 smallholder farmers since its inception.[12][13]

In April 2017, Babban Gona became the first Social Enterprise to win Skoll Foundation Awards.[14][15][16] In 2017, Babban Gona received a $2.5m investment from the Global Innovation Fund.[17]

Objective

edit

To catalyse capital and fund the company’s expansion in order to tackle multiple constraints in smallholder farming with promising increases to farmer net incomes in an extremely poor region of Nigeria.[18]

How It Works

edit

Babban Gona four key services to drive success for smallholder farmers:[6][19]

  1. Training and Education
  2. Financial Credit
  3. Agricultural Input
  4. Harvesting & Marketing Support

Babban Gona provides support for smallholder farmers through what the company calls "Trust Groups", grassroots level farmer cooperatives.[20] A group of 3-5 smallholder farmer members,[7][21] with a trust group leader assigned to each group, who is selected after passing agronomic knowledge test and oral leadership interview.[21] After a trust group is established, members of each trust group are trained on the following - agronomy, financial literacy, business skills and leadership through the BG Farm university platform.[22] Babban Gona members have a loan repayment rate estimated to be at about 98%.[21] Other trust group members are responsible for repaying if a trust group member defaults.[21]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Aisha Salaudeen. "This agricultural enterprise is helping Nigerian farmers expand their business". CNN.
  2. ^ "Agriculture: Farming revolution has yet to take off". November 27, 2012.
  3. ^ "Insight: Nigeria seeks farming revival to break oil curse". July 4, 2013 – via www.reuters.com.
  4. ^ "Innovators Creating Prosperity: Babban Gona". Christensen Institute. March 30, 2020.
  5. ^ "Scale Up Sourcebook" (PDF). Purdue University, African Development Bank Group. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Companies to Inspire Africa 2019" (PDF). London Stock Exchange Group. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Partnership Aims to Create 560,000 Work Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurs and Smallholder Farmers". Mastercard Foundation. May 1, 2020.
  8. ^ "Outgrower Programmes and Fortunes of Smallholder Farmers in Nigeria: Role of financial institutions". Premium Times. May 31, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Foote, Willy. "Meet The Nigerian Entrepreneur Depriving Boko Haram Of New Recruits". Forbes.
  10. ^ "AGRA, Babban Gona transforming smallholder farming". Vanguard News. January 14, 2016.
  11. ^ "NSIA Invests in Smallholder Framers through Babban Gona Franchise Model" (PDF). Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  12. ^ "'Our commitment to reduce unemployment through agriculture is real'". April 18, 2021.
  13. ^ "Babban Gona to provide jobs for youths in agriculture". April 19, 2021.
  14. ^ "Skoll | Skoll Awardee Kola Masha of Babban Gona on His One Regret".
  15. ^ "Kola Masha's Babban Gona bags the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship! | Hello Tractor".
  16. ^ "And a Skoll Award goes to...Babban Gona, for boosting incomes of Nigerian farmers". ImpactAlpha. March 31, 2017.
  17. ^ "Babban Gona". Global Innovation Fund. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  18. ^ "Babban Gona".
  19. ^ "OUR MODEL".
  20. ^ "560,000 youths to secure jobs through Babban Gona MasterCard Foundation partnership". May 18, 2021.
  21. ^ a b c d Angara UA, Ahmed B, Ojeleye OA, Ismaila HA, Baba D (2020). "Assessment of Stakeholders' Compliance to Contract Terms under Babban Gona Rice Scheme in Kano State, Nigeria". Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Extension. 21 (4): 73–78. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.26992.38403.
  22. ^ "Agriculture: Nigeria's job creation engine – Private Sector & Development".
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Babban_Gona&oldid=1242542584"