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How Two Nigerian Young Techies Are Changing Their World

How Two Nigerian Young Techies Are Changing Their World

Forbes magazine, in its 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30, lists 600 young people (30 each across 20 industries) it describes as today’s leading change-makers and innovators. Two of them are Nigerians – Nasir Yammama and Bukola Bolarinwa.

All under 30 years, Forbes describes those on that list as young people who “are challenging the conventional wisdom and rewriting the rules for the next generation of entrepreneurs, entertainers, educators and more.”

So impactful are their contributions that both Yammama and Bolarinwa were among 60 outstanding young people recently conferred with the Queen of England’s Young Leaders Medal 2017 at an elaborate ceremony held at the Buckingham Palace.

From Nigerian Tribune. Story by .

Nasir Yammama

27-year-old Nasir Yammama is a creative technologist and founder of Verdant AgriTech, a low-cost technology and active solution that seeks to support rural crop farmers to achieve sustainable farming and improved food production using mobile phones.

“The efficiency of farmers depends on different factors – from weather, to financial planning and operational management. We understand these needs and share with the farmer a common goal of achieving improved food production and improved livelihood.

“This is why Verdant is designed to be an all-round companion for the farmer; from the pre-planting period to harvest and beyond,” he says,

Through Verdant, Yammama is offering mobile extension services, weather and market information, warehousing and financial services, including agriculture credit and index insurance services to farmers “on all varieties of mobile phones and on all major languages (in Africa).”

“We are also very dedicated to making sure that Verdant is accessible to users of low-end devices who may not be literate or tech-savvy. Using access to scientific data in partnership with research and financial institutions and even governments, Verdant intends to turn information into insight, presenting it to the farmer in a convenient manner that enables precise decision making.”

On what inspired him to create Verdant, Nasir recently told The Black Muslim Times UK: “The inspiration for Verdant was initially sentimental. My father was a farmer and I always wanted to be involved in agriculture, despite having gone into computing.

“I just happened to be around at a time when the world needed innovations in agriculture. I observed the global environmental and food crisis that had arisen over the past few decades, particularly across Africa.

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