To continue the social good and extend my helping hand, I need to achieve my second dream of creating and supporting socioeconomic prosperity for people and the society through inclusive and sustainable business and entrepreneurship development which will allow me to unlimitedly continue the social good aspirations with rewards from business/entrepreneurship endeavors. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller have done it and Muhammad Abdulatif Jameel is presently doing it through Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and I'm already doing it in my present capacity but hope to do it better and bigger. This is one of the utmost reasons CrowdfundingAg emanated?
CrowdfundingAg is an inclusive social enterprise offering investment opportunities with people at the based of the pyramid (BoP) in mind unlike mainstream investment firms exclusively for the middle class and the rich. We observed income/wealth inequality is on the rise and the poor are always at the receiving end. While the middle class and the rich are taking advantage of investment opportunities such as stock, bond and related mutual investments to complement their primary incomes, we discovered these form of investments only favoured the minority. In another word, they are antagonist of the masses!
To challenge the status quo, we are tapping into the potentials of agriculture, harnessing the power of crowdfunding to deliver a social enterprise solving 3 most pressing global problems: income inequality, food insecurity and youth unemployment; using lean methodology and human centred design approach to provide inclusive agribusiness investment service that easily accommodate not only the middle class and the rich but also, specifically tailored to suit people at the base of the pyramid (BoP).
In short, CrowdfundingAg is a socially conscious startup aims at reducing income inequalities in Nigeria by giving people opportunity to invest and earn secondary income irrespective of their location through our online agritech platform (at full operation ) as well as offline as part of our mission: "to elevate financial wellbeing of people with affordable and easily accessible agribusiness investment opportunities with promising return on investment". Eliminating food insecurity and youth unemployment are the key byproduct of doing this. Hence, our mantra: feed nation, earn money!
Now, we've been on a pilot phase since June 2016 to validate product-market-fit and we have 3 clients as early adopters on our cassava value chain portfolio with 5 acres plantation at government farm settlement, Ado-odo ota, Ogun state. In addition, we've received several "go ahead, you are too good" accolades from industry experts and stakeholders in Nigeria startup ecosystem and just recently we were selected along other 23 startups out of 200 that applied for Lifting Youth and Fostering Entrepreneurship Camp (LYFECAMP) competition held at Africa Leadership Forum secretariat, Ota, from 16-19 December 2016 where we became 6th finalist.
This achievement automatically qualified us top place for incubation at alftech hub lunched at the bootcamp and few weeks ago we were invited for incubation terms meeting after reviewing our executive summary.
We are now officially enrolled for the startup incubation which means our team will spend 6-9 months working with the incubation specialist for novel business development and support services which at the end will see us lunching our web platform to the market. To take full advantage of this opportunity at least 3 of the team members must be actively engaged at the tech hub in Ota, which required renting of living space and other living expenses including incubation enrollment and associated fees totalling about N300,000. And I, as the founder who has been single handedly runing the pilot on bootstrapping since June 2016, I've exhausted my savings. Similarly, Damilola, who is handling accounting is a fresh graduate and the third team member, Paul, who is an agricultural extensionist is currently on a low paying teaching job.
It is in this case we are seeking your financial support. Your contribution shall be properly acknowledged and we also promise you not only up to date information on our development but also a VIP spot in our investment offers at full operation by the end of the year and thereafter as a reward
Donations are welcome to the Firstbank savings account number:
3069169255, Aminu A. Opeyemi.
May God continue to enrich you and your endeavors as you rendered your support.
Thanks
www.crowdfundingag.wordpress.com
Facebook.com/CrowdfundingAg
Twitter.com/Crowdfunding_Ag
P.S. P/s feel free to request or independently verify/research affiliations with organizations (lyfecamp.com, africaleadership.org & alftechhub.com), parties and individuals mentioned as regards our claims and the needs for this fundraising.
P.P.S. UPDATES ON DONATIONS RECEIVED
Donors/forms of donation/Location/Amount
-Barrister Ganiyu Olatoye/Cheque/Osogbo/N30,000
