Africa | March 31, 2017

And a Skoll Award goes to…Babban Gona, for boosting incomes of Nigerian farmers

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ImpactAlpha

And a Skoll Award goes to…Kola Masha of Babban Gona, for boosting incomes of Nigerian farmers.

The six-year-old agriculture startup is the first for-profit company to receive a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, which were announced ahead of next week’s Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England.

Based in Lagos, Babban Gona has helped more than 13,000 smallholder maize and rice farmers in northern Nigeria double their yields and triple their income with low-cost agricultural inputs, financial services and training.

“To end insecurity we must unlock the potential of agriculture as a job-creation engine for millions of youth across Africa,” said Masha, who is the managing director of Babban Gona. The agribusiness is part of the impact investment firm Doreo Partners.

Among this year’s nonprofit winners of the $1.25 million Skoll Awards are Elizabeth Hausler, founder and CEO of Build Change, a disaster-resistant home builder; Rajesh Panjabi, co-founder and CEO of Last Mile Health, which is mobilizing health workers in Liberia; and Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris, which fights human trafficking.

Two of the four Skoll awardess, Rajesh Panjabi and Elizabeth Hausler, were Echoing Green Fellows.