Committed to creating 1,000,000 jobs by raising 100,000 agripreneurs across Africa by 2025, a fast growing agribusiness, BIC Farms has commenced a new model of business geared towards farm investment and entrepreneurship.
BIC Farm Estate and Avocado Orchard Investment, as the names are called, will help anyone buy and own real profit-earning assets, helping farmers, investors and civil servants grow and maintain assets until ready for market.
Sharing the vision of the company’s new project with newsmen recently, the Chief Executive of BIC Farms, Adebowale Onafowora, disclosed that “with 84 million hectares of arable land, and a 200 million population with 60 percent as youth, Nigeria should be the world’s food basket.
“As a forward looking agribusiness organisation, our key focus are traditional innovation, sustainability, circularity, wealth creation and empowerment.
“You can experience the rewards of owning your own farm estate. We are restoring the pride of owning cattle, cash crops, farmlands and the historical status they have in global financial services.
“Investing in agribusiness is in every African’s blood. It is not only a living, breathing, walking form of collateral that offers great returns. It also affords a sense of pride.
“BIC Farms Estate investment offers you the opportunity to invest in a sustainable farm through buying and banking your own land or tree crops, watching it grow and reaping annual rewards at maturity from careful management by experienced agribusiness managers. It is an affordable and a great investment.”
On how prospective investors can be accommodated in the scheme, Onafowora, who is an Ashoka fellow, added: “the first step is to decide that you want to invest or do business. Select a plan based on your choice, and availability. Once invested in a farm estate, you will always be a member of the estate. You can visit the farm if you would like to see your business or investment from time to time.
“We are only launching the farm estate arms of BIC Farms. Over the years, people have been reaching out to us that they want genuine farmlands and an agriculture-supported arm of the team.
“A lot of lands in Nigeria is not used even when we have the largest arable land in the world. Nigeria is still not benefiting from that and that is why we have launched the farm estate arm and under this, we are not only telling people to buy land. We have viable crops they can grow on this land. We will manage and supervise everything grown for them and what is what the Avocado part is about.
“We have foreign off-takers that are buying them in US dollars. This is what we have structured around people who plan to retire soon. We would have set up a farm estate or an orchard for them and give them returns on an annual basis, in foreign currency. They won’t need to retire and be waiting for the pension that is not there.
“A lot of people have been having issues with buying land. They soon find out the land is either under acquisition or it has omo-onile problems.
“For years, we didn’t dabble at it because we didn’t understand it. We took our time to study organisations in terms of low-cost land. Having sorted all that, we partnered to set up this arm of our business. People call us even in the diaspora to help get land and also show them what they can do on this land. 65 percent of the lands in Nigeria are not used by anybody. We not only help you get the land, we also help you ensure that the land is useful and productive.”