Tingo Mobile on Thursday opened a head office in Accra, Ghana and also launched nationwide operations in that country that will focus on the improvement of crop production efficiency and crop yield, as well as the reduction of post-harvest losses.
The Nigerian-based company said it had decided to make in-roads into Ghana as the West African country has a strong and well-developed agricultural sector, as well as its considerable and thriving export market in non-staple products.
“Tingo Mobile has committed to work closely with the Ghanaian Government and its Ministry of Food and Agriculture to achieve its goal of growing Ghana’s agriculture sector’s contribution towards Gross Domestic Product, to be in excess of 25% by 2025 (25% of 2025 forecast GDP = $20.2 billion compared to 19.1% in 2020, including through the improvement of crop production efficiency and crop yield, as well as the reduction of post-harvest losses,” the company said in a press release released on Thursday.
To coincide with its launch, Tingo Ghana has agreed on a trade deal with the Kingdom of Ashanti, through the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust. The Kingdom of Ashanti presides over Ghana’s Ashanti Region, which has a population of approximately 5.4 million citizens, and through its dominant position in Ghana and Ghana’s agricultural sector, also has a degree of influence over much of the country’s population of 32 million.
Under the terms of the trade deal, the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust has committed to enroll a minimum of 2 million new members with Tingo within 120 days of signing and has agreed on a target to increase such enrollments to at least 4 million members.
“Tingo Mobile is replicating in Ghana the same proven business model that has generated more than $526 million of revenues and $298 million of net income before tax in Nigeria in the first half of 2022. In addition to rolling out its Nwassa Agri-Fintech marketplace platform in Ghana, Tingo Mobile is also plans to launch the TingoPay SuperApp in the coming weeks, to include payment services, in partnership with Visa,” it added
“The Nwassa platform is expected to benefit from significant revenues on both the buy-side and sell-side in Ghana where, because of more developed agricultural practices, farmers have a greater demand for inputs, including equipment, fertilizers, and pesticides, for example. Such market conditions in Ghana are expected to lead to a higher level of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which in turn is expected to lead to a further increase in profitability in 2023 and beyond.
“Ghana and the trade deal with the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust also represents a considerable opportunity for Tingo Mobile’s planned export business, not least because Ghana, as the gateway to Africa, is the location of several of Africa’s busiest seaports. Ghana has already established a thriving agricultural export market, as the second largest cocoa producer in the world, and as a major producer of other non-staple crops such as palm oil, cocoa paste, shea butter, coconuts, and cashew nuts. Moreover, the Kingdom of Ashanti accounts for a large portion of the production of such crops and has committed to work closely with Tingo Mobile to further develop and grow Ghana’s agricultural export trade.”
Commenting on the deal, Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Mobile founder said; “When we announced our merger with MICT earlier this year, we explained that one of the key rationales for the transaction was MICT’s ability to help accelerate the globalisation and dollarisation of our business. As we move towards completion of the merger later this month, today’s launch into Ghana is tangible evidence of the strategy’s execution between MICT and Tingo and represents an important milestone in our international expansion.”
Tingo is the leading agri-fintech company operating in Africa, with a marketplace platform that empowers social upliftment through mobile, technology and financial access for rural farming communities.
