Francis Obirikorang is an enthusiastic Ghanaian entrepreneur and Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer at AgroCenta Technologies, a Pan-African Fintech company dealing in rural communities’ financial inclusion.
Founded in 2015, AgroCenta Technologies was founded by Obirikorang and his friend Michael Ocansey, driven by one single vision: creating better market access and financial services for smallholder farmers across the African continent.
Its products range from digital payments, loans, insurance, and pensions tailored for these farmers.
The way the startup worked in executing its goals was by developing a big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence-powered platform known as Velociti.
Alternative data built by Velociti gives small rural farmers access to financial services that include microloans, mobile payments, insurance, savings, and pensions, among others. It also creates a digital identity for all players in the value chain of agriculture in Africa.
He first co-founded AgroCenta Technologies, and in 2015, Obirikorang co-founded Swappaholics Holdings Ltd, which he headed from the start till 2016 as CEO.
It was designed to avail an e-platform where individuals and enterprises, inclusive, are at liberty to barter with products, skills, and services by offering them to the system with no engagement of cash.
Dratech International celebrates Francis Obirikorang as one of those giants who, through the influence he has created for himself, has reshaped and grown the Fintech sector.
The article throws in the achievements of Francis Obirikorang and his influence within the African financial technology space. Let me break it down.
You might also like – Andrew Takyi-Appiah: Enabling international remittances as Founder of Zeepay
Francis Obirikorang`s Background
Francis Obirikorang, the co-founder and one of the visionary leaders in Agri-fintech AgroCenta-a platform that empowers smallholder farmers in Ghana.
He is an agricultural economist by training, merging technical knowledge with profound insight from a farmer’s perspective.
The uniqueness of Obirikorang lies in his use of technology to develop market access and financial inclusion among rural communities.
His platforms, such as AgroTrade and Velociti, are using big data and AI to provide digital payments, microloans, and insurance solutions.
He is a pioneer in innovative practice, social impact, and economic transformation in bridging the gap between agriculture and technology in Africa.
AgroTrade: Bridging Farmers and Markets
Smallholder farmers are often forced to sell to middlemen who buy at ridiculously exploitative prices, which in essence means they can never grow from being smallholders into middle level or even commercial farmers, due to an absolute lack of access to structured markets.
It means that Agrocenta is on a mission to provide a route to market access by small-scale farmers, clean up the value chain of exploitative buying that enables small-scale farmers to sell directly to the consumers at a good market price that will remove the farmer from subsistence into commercial business.
Benefits that accrue to smallholder farmers in AgroCenta are access to a market platform, which ensures fair trade, a financial inclusion platform called AgroPay. This ushers the unbanked farmer into the banking ecosystem, where he can receive payments from virtually every corner of the world.
The power of mobile technologies that ultimately will help them transact, access credit, and improve their financial livelihood.
AgroPay: Revolutionizing Financial Access
Farmers in our part of the world are either illiterate or semi-literate, operating on a subsistence farming basis with little economic benefit accruing from such.
These, coupled with cultural beliefs, add to all the issues and limit the small holder farmer in terms of his understanding of rapid advancement in technology and innovations.
However, with these couple of setbacks are enormous opportunities where the agricultural landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be worth 1 trillion dollars by 2030 according to the World bank.
These can, however, be transformed into golden opportunities with the right training, mindset, and cultural shifts.
Much of the agricultural problems that Ghana is facing could have been mitigated by appropriate infrastructure for storage. Besides, poor communication systems combined with deficient road networks bring low prices to the country’s farmers during bumper harvests, causing hunger in the off-season.
This is a microcosm of stories of farmers at Atebubu in the Brong Ahafo Region receiving next to nothing for their yams. Such stories are told of many smallholder`s farms across the country.
Despite the country’s blessing with abundant fertile lands, supply-side factors have left the country a net importer of food products and exporter of raw, primary food products for foreign exchange.
Global Recognition and Impact on Agriculture
In the next couple of years, Agric-tech startup AgroCenta is looking to expand its operations to Nigeria.
AgroCenta is built around online trading platform AgroTrade, which connects smallholder farmers to a larger structured market.
Last year the startup was selected to represent Ghana at global pitching competition Seedstars World.
It currently has about 10 000 small holder farmers on the platform, all in Ghana, with plans to go live with a pilot in the third quarter of this year.
The Nigeria expansion will see engagements with an initial 100 000 smallholder farmers, linking them to about six large, medium and small scale off-takers to sell directly,” says AgroCenta CEO and co-founder Francis Obirikorang.
The startup also provides an on-demand logistics solution- TruckR, information platform- AgroInfo and a mobile money offering- AgroPay.
Within the period between May and December last year, the startup facilitated trade of about 2000 metric tonnes of maize, sorghum and soybean while generating $190 000 in revenue.
Francis Obirikorang’s Leadership and Vision
Through his leadership and strategic vision in fintech, Francis Obirikorang has driven financial inclusion among rural communities in Africa.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at AgroCenta Technologies, he has been instrumental in changing the dimensions in which smallholder farmers access financial services.
By leveraging innovative technologies like big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Obirikorang has created Velociti, which provides digital payments, microloans, insurance, and pensions for farmers.
His vision is to break barriers that stand in the way of the participatory inclusion of rural farmers in the economy.
He uses AgroCenta in a bid to create financial inclusion for underprivileged communities through the opening of their markets, spurring economic development within Africa’s agriculture.
Through his leadership, Obirikorang has set a high bar leveraging technology as the means to address key challenges in rural finance, and he stands out as one of the pioneers in Africa’s Fintech ecosystem.
You might also like – Katlego Maphai: Revolutionizing South Africa’s Payment Ecosystem as Founder of Yoco
Long-Term Economic Development through AgroCenta
Francis Obirikorang’s more significant influence on Africa’s technology ecosystem lies in his commitment to harnessing technology to deliver social and economic transformation.
He co-founded and leads AgroCenta, a venture that has innovated financial inclusion for smallholder farmers by availing digital solutions to bridge the gap between rural communities and access to financial services.
His big data and artificial intelligence-powered platform, Velociti, affords farmers microloans, insurance, and digital payments, integrating them into formal economic life.
Obirikorang’s novelty in Fintech catalyzes growth within Africa’s agricultural value chain and empowers farmers toward economic resilience.
Beyond agriculture, his work serves as a good example of how technology can uplift underserved populations and may influence other entrepreneurs in socially impactful ventures.
A bigger movement of championing financial inclusion and deploying technology to solve real-life problems is contributing to reshape the tech landscape of Africa by driving development and spurring an inclusive economy across the continent.
FAQs
What is Francis Obirikorang’s main contribution to fintech?
He co-founded AgroCenta, a fintech company providing financial inclusion for smallholder farmers through digital services like microloans, insurance, and mobile payments.
How does AgroCenta help smallholder farmers?
AgroCenta uses its platform, Velociti, to offer farmers access to financial services, helping them integrate into the formal economy and improve their livelihoods.
What technology does AgroCenta leverage?
AgroCenta utilizes big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to offer financial services tailored to the needs of rural communities.
What is Francis Obirikorang’s impact on Africa’s tech ecosystem?
He has driven financial inclusion in agriculture, setting a precedent for using technology to uplift underserved communities and encouraging innovation across Africa.
Conclusion
Francis Obirikorang contribution to agricultural technology is instrumental and highly effective in ensuring that financial inclusion in Africa grows, especially among smallholder farmers.
He utilized AgroCenta to drive rural communities toward access to financial services through the use of technology, therefore driving economic growth and empowering traditionally excluded people in the formal economy.
He ingeniously applied big data, machine learning, and AI to transform agriculture; the touchstone against which one can marshal technology into solving real-world problems was set anew.
Indeed, at the touch of Obirikorang, inspirations of progress across Africa’s tech ecosystem continue, driving positive change and opening pathways toward sustainable development in fintech and beyond.
References
Francis Obirikorang Enhances Financial Access
Accelerating Financial Inclusion for Rural Communities in Africa
