Achiever in Agriculture Award for Cellulant Nigeria’s CEO – Bolaji Akinboro 
Wednesday, 25 November 2015; Lagos, Nigeria – Cellulant’s co-founder and CEO of Cellulant Nigeria, Bolaji Akinboro will today (Wednesday, 25th November) receive the Achiever in Agriculture Award from the Central Committee of the Nigerian Agriculture Awards (NAA) for the company’s E-wallet technology – a digital platform that has transformed the lives of more than 14 million farmers in Nigeria. The ceremony will take place at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos during the Annual Award Dinner.
Cellulant, is Africa’s leading one-stop payments and digital commerce service company, with offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. They employ over 300 people, and reach 40 million customers Africa-wide.
Since its launch in 2011, Cellulant’s E-wallet has facilitated the distribution of over US$1 billion in fertilizer subsidies to farmers under the Growth Enhancement and Support (GES) programme, a component of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Over and over again we have seen Africans, through various innovations, prove that the impossible is made possible when the needs of the consumers are at the centre of the solutions provided. GES is certainly a testimony to this. Delivery of a programme of this scale and at this speed is a first for Nigeria considering that the entire agro-dealer network had to be rebuilt from scratch”, says Mr Akinboro.
“It is an honour to receive this award recognising the hard work and contribution of Cellulant and those who worked tireless to see the programme come to fruition.” he added.
The GES programme has more than doubled the income of the farmers from US$700 to US$1,800 per annum per household, improving their living standards and moving them out of subsistence into self-sufficiency in three years.
Bolaji has spent most of his working life changing the lives of people and societies as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur in for profits and not for profits in Africa . He understands the African market very well and has spent time working in business development with reputable companies in the continent.
Some of his work includes working in Sales and Marketing at Procter & Gamble in Nigeria and setting up P&G in Ghana as its Country Director where he grew the business from scratch to a US$10million operation.
He was recruited by the World Bank through KPMG to head the Business Development Unit for its Africa Virtual University (AVU) project and was based in East Africa. It was during this time that he met his Kenyan partner, Ken Njoroge and together they founded Cellulant in 2004.
A Pharmacy graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, Bolaji holds a post-graduate certificate in management from Herriot Watt University in the United Kingdom. He is also an alumnus of the Oxford University Business Economics Programme.
In 2015, Bolaji was awarded by the Federal Government of Nigeria – Outstanding Contributor in the Development of Agriculture through Technology as well as Agriculture Innovator of the Year in Technology from Agrainnovate in 2014
The Nigerian Agriculture Awards (NAA) is an annual event oganised by Verdure Vision, publishers of AgroNigeria Magazine, Nigeria’s most authoritative agro-centre print and online publication with presence across all geo-political zones of the country. In 2015, Prominent Awardees who will be receiving awards alongside Mr Akinboro include four Nigerian State Governors, the Nigerian Central Bank Governor, prominent industrialist and investor, Alhaji Sani Dangote and Okomu Oil Palm Plc., among others.