Economy
FarmNow Unveils Service to Address Food Loss, Waste
By Adedapo Adesanya
FarmNow Nigeria, an agro-allied service poised to connect stakeholders and formulate tech-driven collaborative solutions along the agricultural value chain, has launched a new service called FarmNow Direct.
The new offering is a one-stop farm store that brings the best mix of 100 per cent fresh agro-products, processed and unprocessed, perishable and non-perishable from the farms directly to consumers’ doorstep as freshly and as naturally as possible.
The service, which is available nationwide, promotes sustainability and sufficiency by playing its part to reduce food loss and food waste through smart innovative ways.
According to the company, this can be a more effective and cost-saving strategy for a developing economy like Nigeria at this time.
Speaking at a launch event, the Chief Executive Officer of FarmNow, Mr Samson Odegbami, stated that, “One of the extreme challenges that Africa faces, particularly Nigeria, is that of feeding its growing population amidst other persistent issues.
“Consequently, this makes hunger, undernutrition and food insecurity prevalent across the continent despite government support for agriculture and the food business sector.
“The boost in agricultural activities in Nigeria promises a relief to these problems, however, each year the country loses and wastes a substantial portion of its total food production to issues peculiar to food production too.”
Nigeria records an annual loss of $9 billion (about N3.5 trillion) to post-harvest waste in Nigeria as documented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to Mr Odegbami, “This waste is almost a quarter of the country’s annual budget. Some of the grains, vegetables, tubers and fruits being wasted include tomatoes, orange, cashew, onions, beans, wheat, cassava, and even yam.”
With its new service, FarmNow Direct’s smart farm store with online and offline outfits is addressing the prevailing huge loss of food and resources going into its production by adopting state-of-the-art storage technologies, and preservative packaging of perishable and non-perishable foods sourced from a wide network of farmers throughout the agriculture supply chain.
In addition to this, FarmNow Direct has been launched with the introduction of modern shopping culture among a new generation of fancy shoppers and eaters by enhancing the transfer of fresh farm produce such as tomatoes, eggs, garri, chicken, etc, from the farms directly to urban businesses and doorsteps.
These farm produce are available on-demand at affordable rates, and are delivered on scheduled delivery days straight to the comfort of the consumer’s home or can also be picked at any of their strategic pickup points.
Speaking to the new eating culture, the Business Manager of FarmNow, Mrs Evelyn Oloyede said, “Undoubtedly, for as long as life exists, the demand for food will remain on the rise globally due to exponential population growth. No matter how little one’s income is, food will always own a share of it, and even if a time comes where there’s no food to buy, people will grow their food to eat in a bid to survive.
“We have used our innovative investments in agricultural technology, and sustainable interventions along the agricultural supply chain to reduce food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition by creating this smart farm store.”
Since its inception, FarmNow has been driving green impact with over 6000 community members, cultivated over 9,000 acres of farmland, processed over 500,000 broiler birds, processed over 10,000 tonnes of cassava tuber, with over 5,000 smallholders farmers in its network.
It is led by Mr Odegbami and headquartered in Megamound building, Ibara Housing, Abeokuta with other offices in Omole Phase 1 and Abuja.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The federal government, the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas have received N1.727 trillion from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for December 2024.
The funds were disbursed to the three tiers of government from the revenue generated by the nation in November 2024.
At the December meeting of FAAC held in Abuja, it was stated that the amount distributed comprised distributable statutory revenue of N455.354 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N585.700 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N15.046 billion and Exchange Difference revenue of N671.392 billion.
According to a statement signed on Friday by the Director of Press and Public Relations for FAAC, Mr Bawa Mokwa, the money generated last month was about N3.143 trillion, with N103.307 billion used for cost of collection and N1.312 trillion for transfers, interventions and refunds.
It was disclosed that gross statutory revenue of N1.827 trillion was received compared with the N1.336 trillion recorded a month earlier.
The statement said gross revenue of N628.972 billion was available from VAT versus N668.291 billion in the preceding month.
The organisation stated that last month, oil and gas royalty and CET levies recorded significant increases, while excise duty, VAT, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and EMTL decreased considerably.
As for the sharing, FAAC disclosed that from the N1.727 trillion, the central government got N581.856 billion, the states received N549.792 billion, the councils took N402.553 billion, while the benefiting states got N193.291 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
From the N585.700 billion VAT earnings, the national government got N87.855 billion, the states received N292.850 billion and the local councils were given N204.995 billion.
Also, from the N455.354 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government was given N175.690 billion, the states got N89.113 billion, the local governments had N68.702 billion, and the benefiting states received N121.849 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
In addition, from the N15.046 billion EMTL revenue, FAAC shared N2.257 billion to the federal government, disbursed N7.523 billion to the states and transferred N5.266 billion to the local councils.
Further, from the N671.392 billion Exchange Difference earnings, it gave central government N316.054 billion, the states N160.306 billion, the local government areas N123.590 billion, and the oil-producing states N71.442 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.
On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.
Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.
At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.
In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.
The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.
The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.
The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.
Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.
In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.
At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).
Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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