By Nnamdi Odumody
Ibrahim Maigari Ahmadu cofounded Livestock247 as a means to fix the friction in the cattle herding ecosystem which has seen Fulani herdsmen being forced to migrate to other regions in Nigeria. This movement has been necessitated as a result of lack of water and pasture in the northern part of the country. Most experts attribute the paralysis to climate change.
Livestock247.com is an online livestock market and listing platform. We are based in Africa, Nigeria. We work together to create and produce good food that we are proud of for people and organizations.
Livestock247.com is a platform for cattle sellers and buyers to transact business. It is also trying to solve the Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis by making the herdsmen stay in their locales through the provision of pasture, water, funding and access to market thus preventing nomadic migration which has led to serious casualties across the nation. It is also an aggregator for livestock producers, consumers, and financial service providers to mitigate the spread of cattle disease.
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It established a partnership with telecommunication giant MTN to develop a cattle tracking system to identify sick cattle in real time and ensure they are treated before their conditions deteriorate. Doing this prevents the spread of diseases which could lead to harmful beef for human consumption.
According to Ahmadu, the livestock business is a multi-billion naira market as a popular livestock market in Jigawa State called Maigatari Market does over 500 million naira in weekly sales, attracting buyers from different parts of Africa, who come there to buy cattle. The entrepreneur wants to onboard the livestock sellers there on his platform to enable them run 24-hour operations.
Another partnership with Sterling Bank is aimed at bringing financial inclusion to the cattle herdsmen.
Livestock 247.com aims through its solutions to make cattle herders smile to the bank irrespective of their locations in the country, while ensuring that only healthy cattle is sold through its platform to consumers. Most importantly, it will prevent the migration patterns of the herdsmen as a survival strategy for their cattle.
Kobo360 is one of the partners, handling the logistics for this startup.
The herdsmen issue isn’t really much about technology or lack of pastures and water; it has a huge cultural and mental undertone. And without addressing it frontally, we will be drawing circles.
When you frame a narrative that the Fulanis are nomads, and therefore entitled to keep crisscrossing Nigeria and beyond, just to rear cattles, then you realise that we are not ready as a nation to address the issue.
Now RUGA is everywhere in the news, whatever that one means, what is clear is that we have complete disregard to feelings of ordinary Nigerians.
Let the gyrations continue…
Yet to make time to understand this RUGA of a time. What the entrepreneur is doing should be the way forward