Babban Gona, a Nigerian agritech company that integrates artificial intelligence into smallholder farming support, has secured a $7.5m debt round from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution. The funding is aimed at providing capital for thousands of smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria, where access to financing remains scarce and agricultural productivity faces growing pressure from climate change.
Founded in 2010, Babban Gona has developed an AI-powered, end-to-end service model that delivers credit, agronomy training, input supply, storage solutions, and links to markets. Its franchise approach allows top-performing farmers to operate micro-enterprises, supplying peers with inputs and working capital. Over time, these micro-enterprises graduate into bankable businesses that can attract local financing. With BII’s backing, Babban Gona says it wants to increase yields and incomes for around 140,000 farmers by 2029.
A financing gap in agriculture
“By backing this pioneering franchise model, we are not only addressing a critical financing gap but also helping to build a more resilient and productive agricultural sector,” said Benson Adenuga, BII’s regional director for West Africa. He added that northern Nigeria, where Babban Gona operates, is “often overlooked by investors” despite its economic and food security significance.
Agriculture accounts for roughly 25% of Nigeria’s GDP and employs over 35% of the workforce, yet smallholder farmers — who make up the majority — rarely have access to formal finance. According to the World Bank, less than 5% of Nigerian farmers have access to credit. This makes initiatives like Babban Gona’s franchise system particularly relevant to tackling systemic underinvestment.
Climate resilience at the core
The company says its model is designed to address not just finance but also the climate shocks that increasingly threaten Nigerian agriculture. Farmers enrolled in the Babban Gona network receive drought-tolerant seeds, climate-smart inputs, and multi-peril area yield insurance. These measures aim to ensure that even in the event of crop failure, farmers can recover without being pushed into debt cycles.
BII’s investment follows similar agricultural commitments to AgDevCo and Johnvents, reflecting a broader push by development finance institutions to de-risk smallholder farming across Africa.
AI as a growth lever
Babban Gona has also been experimenting with AI since 2018. Its in-house model, trained on over 2m images, allows farmers to diagnose crop health by uploading photos from their phones. Beyond agronomy, the company has extended AI tools to rural women who run after-school literacy programmes and antenatal care initiatives in their communities.
“Our early work in AI enabled us to build very strong relationships in the space,” said Kola Masha, Babban Gona’s managing director. He recalled how the company was invited alongside global tech players like Nvidia, OpenAI, and Google to a small gathering in Lake Como to explore AI’s role in global development.
The company is now testing mobility solutions for farmers, describing its plans as the equivalent of building a “Tesla for northern Nigeria.” The initiative involves helping farmers acquire electric two-wheeler bikes and setting up charging infrastructure in rural areas.
What next?
With its new round of financing, Babban Gona is betting that its AI-enabled franchise model can scale in regions where conventional agribusiness investors remain hesitant. The challenge will be in translating development finance into sustainable growth while proving that smallholder farming — often viewed as low-yield and high-risk — can become a scalable and investable sector.
If the company succeeds, its model could serve as a template for agritech across sub-Saharan Africa, blending climate resilience, AI adoption, and local entrepreneurship to tackle long-standing gaps in agricultural productivity and rural finance.