From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Nigerian Entrepreneur and founder of the first digital poultry investment platform, ePoultry.NG, Anthony Owei has been selected as one of 11 young founders from Africa for the 2021 Westerwelle Young Founders Programme in Germany.
The Westerwelle Young Founders Programme is a fully funded 6-month long programme for outstanding young entrepreneurs from emerging and developing countries. The programme aims at connecting young founders from all over the world and offers mentoring programmes tailored to their particular challenges and develop their international network.
The top performing founders will also be invited to Berlin in the autumn of 2021 where they will have opportunity to pitch to investors, participate in workshops and networking events and get an insight into the German start-up scene.
Owei had in February 2019 founded ePoultry.NG to provide the public an opportunity to partake in the poultry value chain where they can sponsor farms and earn profit of up to 50% annually.
The focus of the company is largely for smallholders poor rural farmers in Nigeria who account for 40% of the total population.
It seeks to lift small holder farmers from poverty by providing them with finance through crowd funding platform, technical skills in terms of continuous training and mentorship as well as access to markets to increase greater sales.
Through the activities ePoultry, Owei believes it can tackle twin Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of hunger and poverty.
According to him, ePoultry.NG was selected based on its peculiarity to provide debt-free financing, technical skills and mentorship as well as market access to smallholder farmers across the country.
