Zowasel

Zowasel is a Nigerian agri-tech and finance company. The company operates as a digital platform that links farmers and agribusinesses with domestic and international buyers. The company provides tools for market access, financial services, and climate-smart reporting to support sustainable farming.

Zowasel is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with operations in Nigeria and East Africa. Its services are available through web, mobile, and low-bandwidth channels, including mobile applications, USSD, IVR, SMS, and WhatsApp in African languages.

Background

Zowasel was founded in 2014 by Jerry Oche in response to longstanding challenges facing smallholder farmers in Nigeria and other African markets, including limited access to structured markets, affordable finance, and transparent pricing.

Prior to founding Zowasel, Oche launched Growsel, a crowdfunding platform for farmers. The venture was unsuccessful due to structural constraints in agricultural markets, such as unreliable buyers, fragmented supply chains, weak quality assurance systems, and poor price discovery. These challenges informed the development of Zowasel as a platform connecting farmers directly with corporate buyers. The company later expanded to include embedded finance, alternative credit scoring, bio-organic input support, and climate compliance tools.

Products and services

Zowasel operates a digital marketplace for agricultural products that connects farmer cooperatives and agribusinesses with buyers. Its services include purchase-order management, quality-assurance processes, logistics coordination, trade-finance facilitation and digital payments.

The company developed the Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS), which uses data including farm production and transaction records to support credit assessments by financial institutions.

Zowasel also operates Crop Pilot MRV, a digital measurement, reporting, and verification platform designed to monitor sustainability indicators, including carbon sequestration and land-use practices, and to support supply-chain transparency and environmental reporting.

Partnerships and programmes

In 2021, Zowasel announced a partnership with Solidaridad West Africa concerning oil-palm and cocoa value chains in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.

The company has also participated in projects with Barry Callebaut, Guinness Nigeria, IDH and VFD Microfinance Bank relating to cocoa, sorghum and agricultural financing in Nigeria.

In 2024, Zowasel received the Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Award from the Global Resilience Partnership.

Recognitions

• 2018: Winner of Financial Inclusion Challenge (Sub-Saharan Africa) by Visa Everywhere Initiative.
• 2021: WFP Zero Hunger Sprint Award.
• 2024: Global Resilience Partnership Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Award.
• 2024: Zowasel Kenya was honoured with the Most Promising AgTech award.
• 2025: CEO Jerry Oche recognised by Meaningful Business 100 (MB100).