Babban Gona

Agriculture is Nigeria’s job creation engine given it accounts for 26% of GDP in 2020, has high growth potential, high labour requirements and relatively low skill requirement. However, to unlock the potential of this sector, critical challenge such as low economies of scale that inhibit smallholder farmers from attaining high levels of profitability must be addressed. Babban Gona creates economies of scale for smallholder farmers by franchising a network of mini grassroots level farmer cooperatives called Trust Groups. The economies of scale provided by membership in Babban Gona enables smallholder farmers to increase their profitability by up to 2.5 times the national average. This increase in net income is driven by substantial increases in yields (on average 2 times national average), significant reduction in costs, e.g., 33% cost savings on urea relative to retail prices, and a 25% – 50% increase in prices for their commodities.