Mazeedah

Who We Are

The value chain in the agribusiness industry, from food production, processing and marketing provide huge opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. So, if you’re looking to start a business or invest in an industry that makes a significant social impact, provides jobs and creates sustainable wealth, agribusiness is surely the way to go.

Embracing value addition technologies to sustainable Agricultural development. That‘s our motto. We are Mazeedah, a start-up from Nigeria incorporated in 2017, with emphasis on Smart Farming, Agro Start-up and Empowerment, driven towards achieving self-sufficient, economy diversification by breaking the jinx of mono economy in sub-Sahara Africa and creating sustainable wealth. Our vision is to bring transparency to the global agricultural market by encouraging people to participate fully in Agribusiness.

What We Do

Studies predict the need for food production to increase by approximately 70% by 2050 to feed almost 10 billion people in order to meet the demands of a rapidly rising world population. Concerns regarding limited arable land, climate change, and the availability of fossil fuels are also on the rise. Hence, Smart farming presents a viable solution to such problems and that is why Mazeedah Integrated Farms Limited was setup in order to help proffer solutions to some of real-life challenges. By increasing both the quantity and the quality of agricultural products, smart farming is able to improve the intelligence of farms and farmers. Collecting massive amounts of information from soil mapping, crop fields, weather data and more usage of specialized modern tools are among the many ways smart farming helps agriculture.

The Team

Hakeem Abdulkareem

Chief Executive Officer

Hakeem is a passionate Agribusiness enthusiast with over 30 years’ experience and primarily focusing on smart farming, startup, empowerment, marketing, exports and consulting. Presently he is working on a project towards achieving FAO’s vision 2050 to feed about 9.1 billion people in the world thereby creating wealth, empowering youths, encouraging startup by providing enablers through technology and also help in diversifying the Nigerian economy. His major focus is value-addition in Agriculture leveraging on his wealth of experience as an ex-banker and an IT professional per excellence with over 12 years working experiences both in hands-on and managerial positions that cut across IT service management, vendor management, cybersecurity and IT Infrastructure.

Hakeem holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mathematics and Computer Science from Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria and was the Chairman Programmers’ Club in the institution from 2003 to 2004. At some point he was the Assistant Secretary and then the General Secretary of Intellectual Group for Defence of Human Rights (IGDHR) that was at the fore front of advocating for conveyance of Sovereign National conference during Obasanjo regime which agitation later came to reality during Goodluck Jonathan regime.

He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Logic, an IT firm that focuses on Cybersecurity, IT Infrastructure and Data Analytics.

Hakeem is an Agropreneur, IT professional, lover of good football, current affairs analyst, rights advocate, champion of good governance and agent of change.

James Ugochukwu Okpe

Director - Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

James holds a B.Tech in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State. He also holds Certificate from US National Emergency and Rescue Training Centre in Cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security on Information Security.

He is a Social Development Practitioner of over 12 years, and currently, the Executive Director African Centre for Entrepreneurship and Information Development, where he oversees the training, empowerment and mentorship of upcoming entrepreneurs and innovators.

He has assisted small scale farmers in some states in North Central Nigeria organize themselves into co-operative society to create spaces for engagement with government agencies and to access agricultural loans.

James also empowers women in acquiring basic SMEs skills that will equip them to contribute to household income through the organization’s “Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme”.

He sits on the board of Several Organizations both Private and Non-profit. Such as Logic Fusion Networks Limited, Jetstar Interactive Information Technology Limited, Yellow Jerrycan Save a Child Foundation and Entrepreneurship Initiative for African Youth.

Bashirat Abdulkareem

Post-Harvest and Value Addition Consultant

Bashirat is a COREN certified engineer and holds both Masters and Bachelor Degrees in Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering from University of Ilorin, Nigeria. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from National Teacher Institute, Kaduna Nigeria (Affiliated to Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto).

She is currently with Kwara State Ministry of Agriculture & Natural Resources and has over 6 years’ experience in Post-Harvest preservation and processing of farm produces with lot of research works that have added value to Agribusiness in Nigeria. Among them are Effect of Cooking and Fermentation on African Locust Bean and An Investigation Into some factors Affecting the Performance of a Solar Tent Dryer.

Prince A.B. Bakare

Company Secretary

Prince A.B. Bakare (LL.B., BL., LL.M., Dip. Law) is a legal practitioner called to the Nigerian Bar with requisite post call experience in advocacy and corporate matters. He earned his degrees from the renown University of Ilorin, Nigeria and Kwara State CAILS (Affiliated to Bayero University Kano). To his credits are equally numerous certificates relating to his field of expertise.

He is currently in active Legal Practice, Property and Corporate consultant and have years of good standing experience in rendering legal and corporate services to both small and large scale of farm producers or companies which has really yielded positively across the country. He is a pillar to reckon with when it comes to Agribusiness in Nigeria with his vast experience in acquisition of farmlands, legal portofolio management, domestic and international trade, Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Portfolio Investment and other ancillary matters thereto.

He currently offers professional services to small and large scale farmers, several artisan bodies or associations, private and public companies. He currently serves as the Company Secretary to Mazeedah Integrated Farms Limited.

Our Products

Fruits and Vegetables

All over Nigeria, from the semi arid desert of the far North through the Guinea savannah of the north central to the thick mangrove forests of the south, the country is blessed with abundant varieties of fruits grown by farmers or naturally spread by animals or birds. Water melon, pineapple, pawpaw, citrus, banana, guava, mangoes, cashew are the common fruits one sees everywhere on the major highways across the country. Each region of the country produces at least three of these seasonal fruits in commercial quantity.

However, less than one percent of the total fruits produced in the country are processed or exported. The rest are either eaten fresh or just rot away! The implication is that farmers reap less from their many years of labour, while the economy loses millions of dollars that could have been accrued from the export of these fruits.

At Mazeedah Farms we focus on Cashew nut, Orange, Banana/Plantain, Watermelon, Cucumber, Tomato & Pepper, Okro, Lettuce and Ginger in ensuring value addition is applied to improve return on investment (ROI).

Cereals

Nigeria agriculture is characterized by small holdings, low capitalization and low yield per unit of land. Cereal crops are the major dietary energy supplier all over the world and particularly in Nigeria. In most part of Africa, cereals supplies about 80% of the energy requirements. Major cereals produced in Nigeria include rice, sorghum, maize, sugar cane and pear millet. They are the mostly grown in the savannah agro ecological zone of the country.

Factors militating their level of productivity include climatic factors (rainfall, temperature and solar radiation), edaphic factors, migration, government policies, use of local varieties, predominance of weeds, pest and diseases and the scourge of HIV/AID.

Solving Nigeria cereal problems is an indirect and powerful approach to alleviate poverty and improve the standard of living for Nigeria farmers. There is the need to have a systematic collaborative research to find solution to the problems posed. The government should be consistent in its agriculture policies such as provision of credit facilities, ban on importation of cereal crops and subsidizing agricultural inputs.

Roots and Tubers

Root and tuber crops, including yam, cassava, potato and sweet potato are the most important food crops for direct human consumption in Africa. They are grown in varied agro-ecologies and production systems ranging from highland densely populated regions to lowland drier areas prone to droughts or floods. These four crops account for about 95% of the total root and tuber crops production in Africa and produce more than 240 million tons annually on 23 million hectares.

Therefore, new employment and income generation opportunities, especially for rural youth, were created through improved value chains and development of novel products (value addition) at Mazeedah Farms.