The First City Monument Bank has expressed its delight in Babban Gona, a Nigeria-based high-impact social enterprise, for winning the Schwab Award for Social Entrepreneurship at the World Economic Forum annual meeting which held in Davos, Switzerland.
Babban Gona is an award-winning and high-impact agri-tech social enterprise that focuses on making farming more financially and environmentally sustainable.
In a statement, FCMB said it was proud to be associated with Babban Gona and pleased to be part of its journey.
While congratulating the social enterprise and affirming continued support for its programmes, the bank stated that winning the prestigious Schwab Award for Social Entrepreneurship was a testament to its impact on people’s lives around Nigeria.
Babban Gona is supported by First City Monument Bank, KfW, FMO, EDFI, IFAD, Mastercard Foundation, DFID, USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rippleworks, Skoll Foundation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, among others,” the statement said.
Babban Gona co-founders, Kola Masha and Lola Masha, are social entrepreneurs that have set out to disrupt the downward spiral of poverty and violence in parts of northern Nigeria, by creating opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work for the very demographic at the risk of being led astray, the rural youth.
The statement said, ‘To address this challenge, Babban Gona, which means ‘Great Farm’ in Hausa, was birthed in 2012 to make farming more profitable for rural youths, turning them into successful entrepreneurs.
Thus, Babban Gona stimulates local economies at scale, disrupting the cycle of poverty and violence in some of Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities.
“Babban Gona started its agricultural franchise model with just 100 farmers and has grown 1,000 times to supporting 100,000 farmers in 10 years.”
It stated that this had been accomplished using its proprietary technology platforms to help farmers increase yields in an environmentally sustainable manner, empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and violence in their rural communities.
So far, it added, Babban Gona had cumulatively supported over 280,000 smallholders and created over 600,000 jobs nationwide.