Tingo Mobile PLC, a 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, has launched nationwide operations with a head office opened in Accra, Ghana.
The company also signed a Landmark Trade Deal with the Kingdom of Ashanti, covering major agricultural and cocoa farming areas. The company’s business in Ghana is held through a wholly owned subsidiary, Tingo Mobile Ghana Ltd (Tingo Ghana).
Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Mobile Founder and Chief Executive Officer, commented that the when the company announced its merger with MICT earlier this year, it explained that one of the key rationales for the transaction was MICT’s ability to help accelerate the globalization and dollarization of “our business”.
Dozy Mmobuosi noted as the company moves towards completion of the merger later this month, the launch into Ghana is tangible evidence of the strategy’s execution between MICT and Tingo and represents an important milestone in its international expansion.
“Having significantly strengthened our dominant position in Nigeria through our recent partnership with AFAN, our goal is to roll out the Tingo Mobile model throughout Africa, and into other parts of the world, where we strive to foster digital and financial inclusion, increase food production efficiency, and improve food security.
“Through our rapid growth in Nigeria, we have already demonstrated the effectiveness of our business model, including helping farmers increase crop yields, reducing post-harvest losses, and achieving better prices for their crops, and we look forward to bringing the same benefits to the farmers of Ghana.”
Dozy Mmobuosi
Dozy Mmobuosi further underscored that with government’s policy aimed at markedly increasing agricultural production, “Ghana was a natural decision for our expansion, and I have every confidence that the Ghanaian market has all the attributes required to enable us to replicate Tingo Mobile’s success and achievements in Nigeria”.
“To support us in our roll-out across Ghana, we are both delighted and privileged to be working with the Kingdom of Ashanti through the trade deal we have signed. We look forward to enjoying mutual success with our esteemed partner and towards working with them to bring the benefits we know can be delivered to the considerable number of members they enroll with us.”
Dozy Mmobuosi
Ghana is regarded as a hugely important market for Tingo Mobile and its Pan-African expansion strategy, because of its 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 compared to 19.1% in 2020. This will include the improvement of crop production efficiency and crop yield, as well as the reduction of post-harvest losses.
Landmark Trade Deal with the Kingdom of Ashanti
To coincide with its launch, Tingo Ghana has agreed on a landmark 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, 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 also plans to launch the TingoPay SuperApp in the coming weeks, to include payment services, in partnership with Visa.
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 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.
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