Tingo, a Nigerian Agriculture FinTech is seeking to raise $500 million funding — a combination of debt and equity financing through a private placement — to expand its operations across Africa.
As disclosed by the company’s CEO Dozy Mmbuosi, Tingo plans to acquire companies and expand infrastructure that will help it become a pan-African business, offering the same services as they are in Nigeria in other African countries. Mmbuosi also reveals that $100 million of these funds will be committed to increasing credit for women farmers across Africa.
Last year, the company affirms its stand in promoting women entrepreneurs and confirms that it has more than 4,000 women agents in Nigeria.
Mmbuosi hinted that the company is in communication with the New York Stock Exchange for listing within the first half of 2022.
What You Should Know About Tingo
- Tingo is an Agriculture-fintech company offering mobile devices as a service model which provides its customers with personal communications services (“PCS”) using GSM technology that is designed to meet the needs of individual consumers and businesses.
- The company has a comprehensive Agri-Fintech and Agri-Marketplace ecosystem that caters for over 12 million rural farmers in villages across Nigeria, becoming a leading provider in Africa of such services over the long term.
- Its platform NWASSA connects farmers with other players in the agricultural value chain and provides them with services like smartphone leasing, utility payments, bill pay, access to insurance and lending services. Another of its product — Tingo Pay — a payment mobile wallet that supports financial inclusion and delivers significant social impact for rural farmers.
- As reported, the Tingo platform processes $4 billion transactions annually and in 2020, it boasted $594 million in revenue which makes the company one of the most valued fintech companies in Africa. It earns from the leases as well as commissions and fees from its other services.
- Tingo is in partnership with Visa to provide digital cards to its customers for ease of transactions.
Making moves for listing in the New York Stock Exchange and expanding across Africa
Tingo started 2 decades ago as an agri-fintech and it’s eyeing to join rising startups that are benefiting from the increasing investor interest in Africa. The company which is valued at about $6.3 billion is targeting funding of $500 million USD to expand across Africa partly through acquisitions that will include commodities firms and a fintech says Mmbuosi.
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Tingo has present in villages across Nigeria, with about 12 million mostly rural-farmer customers. Its primary business is to lease smartphones, which connect growers to access inputs, credit and markets for their produce via mobile-phone applications.
The company’s intention from the new financing is to double its agents’ network to 50,000 under a partnership with Visa International to provide access to digital payments in rural areas and expand its operations to at least 19 countries in the coming years.
“We plan to acquire companies and expand infrastructure that will position us to become a pan-African business, delivering the same services we’re delivering in Nigeria in many other countries,” Mmobuosi said. Talking about the partnership with Visa, he added that “Those with our smartphones will be able to access digital visa cards, not just the plastic ones”.
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While working towards becoming a global company, it is pushing for a listing with NYSE. *“*We are working closely with the exchange and we believe the outcome will be positive.” says the CEO, Mmbuosi