OPINION | African Agritech Is Quietly Collapsing – And We Need to Talk About It

2025-06-23 09:39:01

By Blessing Mene

Across Africa, agritech is faltering – not with a bang, but with silence. And yet, amid the pitch decks, panel discussions, and rising user numbers, few in the ecosystem are sounding the alarm.

But we need to.

The truth is: African agritech is copying fintech models, chasing vanity metrics, and building impressive technology that farmers barely use. This isn’t just a funding concern – it’s a fundamental business model crisis.

1.) Agritech Is Not Fintech – And That’s Okay

Fintech thrives on volume. Millions of microtransactions mean even a 0.5% transaction fee can generate significant revenue.

Agritech? Not the same.

An agrifinancing platform might process 3,000 transactions in a month, and a commodity aggregator may close 15 large contracts over the same period. Copy-pasting fintech’s pricing model simply doesn’t work. Agritech success is margin-driven, not volume-driven.

We must stop pretending. Pricing should reflect value delivered, not mimic app-based platforms with daily user interactions.

Ironically, Coca-Cola remains one of Africa’s most profitable agri-distribution models. They don’t grow crops – but they move sugar-based products with unmatched efficiency. Agritechs would do well to borrow that playbook: logistics, branding, smart pricing, and mass distribution.

2.) User Numbers Are Up – But Revenues Are Missing

Every week, startups tout big user bases:

“100,000 farmers onboarded.”

“500,000 downloads.”

But if each user paid just $10 per month, that should equate to millions in revenue. So where is it?

The answer: many of those users aren’t paying customers. They were onboarded through donor subsidies, free pilots, or simply represent dormant accounts.

Meanwhile, real-world agri-businesses – cassava processors in Ogun, feed millers in Accra – may have just 80 customers. But they operate profitably. They focus on unit economics, inventory turnover, and cash flow — not vanity dashboards.

If your platform claims impact, your books should show income. Otherwise, it’s not a business. It’s a grant project.

3.) We’re Building Tech That No One Uses

We’ve become obsessed with building:

AI dashboards. IoT tools. Mobile apps.

But ask farmers, and they’ll tell you what matters:

Fertilizer that arrives on time
Buyers who actually pay
Working capital that’s fair
A human being to call when things go wrong

These aren’t novel problems – they’re the essential ones. And if the solutions we’re building aren’t addressing them, then we’re not solving for the user. We’re building for the funder.

Until we return to real problems, real unit economics, and real value creation, the sector will continue to quietly collapse — no matter how many farmers are “onboarded.”

Edited by BitKE. The original post was published here.

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