Venture: Babban Gona

Investment: $3 million loan

Portfolio: Scaling Capital

Investment date: September 2019

Region(s) served: Sub-Saharan Africa

Sector: Agriculture

Core Impact Metric: Increased farmer income

Subordinated loan helps unlock further funding to increase farmer incomes in Nigeria

Babban Gona is working to revitalize Nigeria’s agricultural sector by serving networks of smallholder farmers. Babban Gona delivers  training, credit, agricultural inputs, marketing support, and other key services to farmers’ doorsteps;. Babban Gona’s model is designed to help young people build financial resilience in their rural communities, where viable sources of long-term income are needed amid rising unemployment and political instability.

Why Rippleworks Invested:

Long-term lenders are scarce amid Nigeria’s political and economic uncertainty, and there is hesitancy by traditional financial institutions to invest in agricultural endeavors. As a result, Babban Gona required subordinated debt from patient funders to crowd in more funding at a key organizational inflection point.

The combination of Babban Gona’s services results in 100% income increases above the national average for their farmers.

Learn more about Babban Gona’s other engagements with Rippleworks here and here.

Babban Gona delivers 100 percent income increases above the national average for farmers.