This financing will empower Babban Gona to extend comprehensive agritech services—ranging from credit and training to harvesting, storage, and market access—to smallholder farmers throughout northern Nigeria.

The model aims to raise crop yields and bolster farmers’ resilience to both financial and environmental shocks.

Babban Gona operates on a distinctive franchise system: high-performing farmers are trained to manage their own micro-businesses, acting as distribution hubs for tools, inputs, and capital to their peers.

As these micro-enterprises mature, Babban Gona helps them gain access to loans from regional banks, thus reinforcing sustainable financial inclusion.

The company has set an ambitious target—to impact approximately 140,000 smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria by 2029 through improved productivity and income.

Crucially, the funding underscores BII’s commitment to both rural development and climate resilience.

Babban Gona provides drought-resistant seed varieties, climate-smart agricultural inputs, and multi-peril yield insurance to support farmers through climatic uncertainties.

Florence Eshalomi, the UK’s trade envoy to Nigeria, emphasized the strategic importance of this initiative:

“This investment will help scale an innovative, tech-enabled model that empowers farmers with access to finance, training, and services, boosting yields and incomes while building climate resilience.”

BII’s backing aligns with its broader mission of channeling catalytic capital to innovative ventures that foster sustainable, inclusive growth in underserved regions.

Founded in 2012 by Kola and Lola Masha, Babban Gona began operations in Kaduna State, progressively expanding into multiple northern states and assisting more than 110,000 smallholder farmers to date.

Its “Trust Groups”—small farmer collectives led by trained group leaders—receive instruction in agronomy, financial literacy, and leadership through Babban Gona’s farm university platform.

These groups ensure a high repayment rate (around 98–99.9%) and enable peer accountability.

In 2017, the Global Innovation Fund provided Babban Gona with a $2.5 million subordinated debt injection, bolstering its agri‑franchise expansion.

Agriculture accounts for about 22% of Nigeria’s GDP and employs nearly 38% of the workforce—making investments like Babban Gona’s critical for both economic development and food security.