For established agro-processors

Build your own smallholder farmer network

The Impact Accelerator Fellowship helps established agro-processors secure a supply base they can plan around, leveraging the model behind fifteen years of financing smallholder farmers at scale.

Apply now Applications close 15th September, 2026
A farmer standing in a field at sunset, tractors working the rows behind him

Up to $250,000

In grant funding per processor, toward establishing your own smallholder farmer network.

Raw material is half or more of your cost of goods, and it is the half you control least

Every other line in your business responds to management. This one does not.

Supply you cannot count on

Volumes arrive late, short, or not at all. Every production plan starts as a guess.

Prices that swing

Input costs move season to season. Your margin gets set by the market, not by your plant.

Quality that varies

Grade changes load to load, driving rework, waste, and output you cannot promise a customer.

Every season you do not have a supply base of your own is a season somebody else sets your ceiling. That does not fix itself. It compounds.

The Impact Accelerator Fellowship exists to fix that

Babban Gona is leading a consortium of partners to help established agro-processors build a profitable Member Farmer Ecosystem: a network of smallholder farmers you train, finance and offtake from, supplying your processing operations with consistent, high-quality raw materials.

The Fellowship funds a significant portion of the cost to set up a dedicated hub team that works exclusively on building your farmer ecosystem, providing farmers with credit, inputs, training and market access so they produce reliably for you. You gain a supply base you can plan around, without diverting your existing operations team.

Phase 1 Pilot Season

The Fellowship covers a significant portion of the core operating costs of setting up your Member Farmer Ecosystem hub, and a Babban Gona Growth Partner works inside your hub, alongside your team, through your first season.

Your commitment: provide the working capital to support your first 30 to 100 farmers (₦0.5M to ₦1M per farmer). This is primarily agricultural inputs, which you can secure independently or with Babban Gona’s procurement support. If you move to Phase 2, the Fellowship will support you to raise commercial debt to fund scale-up of your Member Farmer Ecosystem.

Phase 2 Scale

Successful Fellows grow their ecosystem toward 2,000+ farmers, built to be financed by commercial banks within three to five years.

For an additional two to four years, the Fellowship supports you with:

  • Additional working capital raising
  • A technology platform that runs your farmer network end to end
  • Ongoing technical and advisory support
  • Farmers trained to grow to your specifications

Built to be trusted. Every farmer’s identity is biometric, every payment runs on one platform, and funding is released year by year based on how your Member Farmer Ecosystem performed the season before.

“Not even in the same universe.”

West Africa’s largest peanut butter manufacturer, on going it alone versus the Fellowship.

The founder built his own 100-hectare farm network and harvested less than a quarter of plan two seasons running. Inside the Fellowship, his farmers’ first crop is in the ground and he is on the road to 2,000.

$250M+
financing delivered to farmers
500,000
smallholder farmers reached
99%+
repayment rate
15 years
running this model ourselves

In a global study of 40 smallholder financing programmes, the Gates Foundation found ours was the only one financially sustainable without permanent subsidy. Eight Nigerian banks have since approved ₦25 billion in lending to farmer networks built on this model.

Five to six processors per market

We build carefully and on purpose. You are a fit if:

  • You run an established processing business with proven demand for your product
  • You process an agricultural commodity sourced from smallholder farmers
  • You can commit working capital for a first 30 to 100 farmers
  • You want a supply base of your own, not a one-off input contract
Applications close
15th September, 2026
Next intake opens after the season closes.

Apply to the Impact Accelerator Fellowship

Under five minutes. We reply to every application.

Tell us what you process. We are not limited to a fixed list.

Questions first? [email protected]

View Fullscreen
Skip to PDF content
View Fullscreen
Skip to PDF content
View Fullscreen
Skip to PDF content

Frank Altman

Non-Executive Director

Pioneer of secondary markets for community development and $3.5B+ in managed funding.

Frank Altman is the founder and first CEO of the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF), USA, where he pioneered secondary markets for economic development loans. Under his leadership, CRF funded over $3.5 billion in loans across 50 U.S. states. He was instrumental in designing the federal New Markets Tax Credit and is an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Altman is an Ashoka Senior Fellow and the author of A New Capitalism: Creating A Just Economy That Works For All. He brings global expertise in risk management and capital structures to Babban Gona.

Michael Jainzik

Independent Non-Executive Director

Michael Jainzik works as an independent consultant and brings his extensive expertise in the areas of agricultural finance, international investments, risk management and corporate governance. He is currently based in Rome, Italy.
 
From 2001 to 2011, Michael worked as an investment professional at KfW Development Bank, focusing on international debt financing and equity investments in investment funds and banking institutions, mainly in the areas of agricultural finance and microfinance. From 2011 to 2015 he worked as Director of KfW’s office in Windhoek. In this role, he helped manage and develop KfW’s EUR 250 million portfolio in Namibia. From 2015 to 2017, he took on the position of Head of Corporate Development at Access Microfinance Holding, where he was responsible for structuring and leading a merger process between Access Holding and another company.
 
Prior to joining Babban Gona, Michael served as a non-executive director in Access Bank Azerbaijan (2006-2011, Chairman), Belarusian Bank for Small Business (2008-2011), Rural Impulse Fund II Luxemburg (2010-2011) and AB Bank Zambia (2011-2016).
 
Michael studied economics and management at the Universities of Lüneburg and Witten/Herdecke (Germany) and at ETEA – Universidad Loyola in Córdoba (Spain) and holds a Master’s degree in economics and management.

Alhaji Bello Maccido

Board Chairman

Over 32 years of executive leadership in corporate and investment banking.

Alhaji Bello Maccido is a distinguished leader in the Nigerian financial services sector. He currently serves as the Chairman of FBN Merchant Bank Ltd. and has previously held board positions at FBN Holdings Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, and Legacy Pension Manager Limited.

He holds the traditional title of “Wakilin Sokoto” and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

Alhaji Maccido’s educational background includes an LL.B from Ahmadu Bello University and an MBA from Wayne State University. He is a Barrister at Law (BL) of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and an alumnus of executive programs at Harvard Business School and IMD Lausanne.

Muhammad Sanusi, CON

Chairman of the Board

His Highness Muhammad Sanusi was appointed the 10th Governor and Chairman of the Board, Central Bank of Nigeria on 3 June 2009. He earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and also has a first-class degree in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African International University, Khartoum, Sudan.
 
From working as a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, where he taught Economics, he joined the banking industry in 1985, and by January 2009 had risen to General Manager and Group Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria PLC, Nigeria’s oldest and biggest bank. Mallam Sanusi has been conferred with a National Award of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and has also been awarded the “Global Central Bank Governor for 2010” by The Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times.
 
He was also voted Central Bank Governor of the Year for Sub-Saharan Africa 2009 (an award he won again in 2010) by Emerging Markets, a publication of Euromoney Institutional Investors. In 2011, Mr. Sanusi was named Forbes Africa Person of the Year for 2011. He was also listed by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Kola Masha (Managing Director) Prior to Babban Gona, Kola was a Managing Director and CEO of a major subsidiary in the Notore.

Lola Masha

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Lola Masha is a seasoned technology leader with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of mobility, technology, and agriculture. She currently serves as a Partner at Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm. Previously, she was the Regional General Manager for North, East, and West Africa at Bolt, overseeing strategic operations in a high-growth mobility sector.

Her career includes leadership roles as Director of Trust and Safety at OLX Group (overseeing 30+ markets) and Country Manager for OLX Nigeria. She was also one of the earliest employees at Google Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Masha holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.Sc. from the University of Virginia.

Kola Masha

Managing Director

First leader of a for-profit social enterprise to win the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Prior to co-founding Babban Gona, Kola was CEO of a subsidiary in the Notore Group, where he led a commercial strategy to sell one million tons of fertilizer and raised $130 million in equity.

He has held leadership roles at GE and Abiomed and served as a Senior Advisor to the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture.

Under his leadership, Babban Gona became the first for-profit social enterprise to win the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, recognizing the organization’s innovative approach to transforming smallholder farming in Nigeria.

He holds an MBA with Honors from Harvard and a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

Kola Masha

 

Prior to Babban Gona, Kola was a Managing Director and CEO of a major subsidiary in the Notore Group, one of Nigeria’s leading agricultural conglomerates, where he raised US$24 Million to develop an integrated agricultural trading, production and processing business.

Furthermore, he led the development and execution of Notore’s commercial strategy across West and Central Africa, preparing the company to sell one million tons of fertilizer and establish a modern seed business.

He led the effort to raise $130 million in equity and the restructuring of $360 Million in debt. Kola brings significant leadership experience in venture capital, corporate finance, business development, marketing and operations, across four continents with multiple global companies, including GE, Notore and Abiomed. In addition, Kola brings extensive public sector experience as Senior Advisor to the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture.

In recognition for his leadership in driving positive change on the African Continent, he has received several global awards including the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship, a leading leadership institute led by General Collin Powell and appointed to the Board of the African Enterprise Challenge Fund, a $250 Million fund that awards grants and repayable grants to private sector companies to support innovative business ideas in agriculture, agribusiness, renewable energy, adaptation to climate change and access to information and financial services. Kola holds an MBA (Honors) from Harvard and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.