Tech in agriculture will create economies of scale that cut prices – Aderibigbe

Stanford Aderibigbe is a highly accomplished bank executive and regulator in the United States. He retired from CFPB, a US Federal Reserve agency. He’s currently the executive chairman of George’s Green Farms Ltd.

He is also the president and chief executive officer of the Center for African Citizenship and Economy (CACE), a U.S. think tank located on K Street in Washington, D.C.

With over three decades of leadership experience, he has consistently demonstrated expertise in managing complex regulatory environments, driving organisational transformation, and fostering sustainable growth in the financial sector.

He recently ventured into fish production with a 28-hectare investment in Awowo, Abeokuta, Ogun State. In this interview with Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi, he spoke about his transition from banking to agriculture and his plans to bridge Nigeria’s fish demand-supply gap.

For over three decades, you have worked in the United States finance and banking industry, as a banker and a bank regulator. What informed your decision to invest in agriculture back home?

I haven’t completely moved away from banking. As a matter of fact, I was asked to serve on the board of a De-Novo Bank by a group of African American investors.

The only way any country can survive is through food security. No matter what you have, if you don’t have food for your people, then there won’t be people for you to govern.

In the US, only four percent of the population farms, yet they feed the entire continent. Not only that, but they also have surpluses that they export to other countries. In Nigeria, we have more farmers, but they are not producing enough because no technology is being deployed in production, and there is inadequate support. We want to change this.

One out of every five black people in the world is from Nigeria. In terms of geographical spread, it’s about two states in the United States — Texas and Florida combined.

The question then is, how do you feed these people? How do you prevent a situation where you have a large population and no food? That was why we ventured into agriculture to address these issues, and we wanted to leverage technology to improve outcomes.

Agriculture is very important and the use of technology helps create economies of scale that bring down prices and make them affordable for all. There’s no issue with the market because we have the market. We have 250 million people and they will eat.

Nigeria needs about 6.25 million tonnes of fish yearly. Local production is about 1.2 million tonnes per annum, and imports about 1.4 million tonnes yearly. So, there’s still a 3.6 million tonnes supply gap. We decided to go into fish production because there’s a market for it.

How does your investment in aquaculture in Nigeria fit into your Citizen by Investment programme for the country?

There are investors in the US who want to invest in Nigeria or in Africa, because the Center for African Citizenship and Economy (CACE) is a global organisation. These investors typically ask us which industry they should go into.

We know there’s a gap in agriculture. That’s why we advise them to invest in agriculture. Investors lack experience in the Nigerian market, so they rely on us to suggest areas where they can invest to make money. This is a win-win situation; the country is being fed, and investors are making money.

The biggest issue in Nigeria’s aquaculture industry is feed. How do you intend to use technology to address the issue around feeds?

We are currently constructing a warehouse that will house our fish meal production. We want to produce our feeds and also supply the market. Fish feed accounts for 80-90 percent of operating expenses, and we must address this issue. It costs very minimally to purchase fingerling and juvenile fish, and you require a period of four to six months to grow to a table size.

Right now, we are buying feed from local manufacturers and importers. We plan to start producing our own feed in the second quarter of 2026. We already have the pelletizer, mixer, pulverizer, and dryer. Except for the pelletizer, all of these equipment are made locally.

What is the capacity of your fish farm?

We started with catfish, and we plan to introduce other species as we go along. One of the things we did was to collaborate with a renowned professor of fisheries and aquaculture at one of the universities of Agriculture to serve as our principal project consultant, to avoid major start-up hiccups.

We’re working with him to determine which additional species to introduce into the market. As you are aware, some fish cannot be raised in Nigeria due to the environment.

We plan to start cultivating tilapia and will be looking into other exotic species. We are also working with the University of Florida on research and development and exchange programmes. The university is renowned for its expertise in agriculture. We are also looking to go into partnerships with other institutions in the country.

Right now, we have 38 acres of land. We’ve constructed seven Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) ponds, each with a capacity of 100,000 fish. RAS is a system in which fish are raised in tanks, and the water is continuously cleaned and reused rather than being discharged and replaced.

Water flows from the fish tanks through treatment units, then back to the tanks. We also have 30 earthen ponds, and each has a capacity of 12,000 fish. Our expansion strategy is to have 50 RAS ponds by 2030 and over 200 earthen ponds by the same time.

We started the farm about a year ago, and we are now harvesting our first batch of 150,000 kg of catfish. Our goal is to be the biggest fish farm in Africa. At the moment, we’re the biggest in Ogun State. In the next year or two, we’ll be the biggest in Western Nigeria.

We have been approached by a West African government to establish a similar operation in the country. They heard about what we’re doing and have offered us 1,000 hectares of land for free and about 500 miles of waterfront for cage farming. The conversation is in high gear as we speak.

How much have you invested in this business and how many jobs has it created?

We’ve invested close to about $2.5 million in that location. We have about 80 people working on the farm. It varies based on what we’re doing. We hire between 12 and 80 employees working on the farm. Some of them are seasonal workers.

In terms of the sustainability of the business, the market is there. And that’s why we decided to put our investment in it. There’s sustainability in terms of the market.

And one of the programmes we’re trying to do is to bring students. Train them and empower them to start their own farms. By providing them with all the implements and resources they need. The profit is going to be a 50-50 split between the company and that entrepreneur and trainee.

We’re not only empowering students but also interested members of the public to start their own farms. And there’s no competition here, since we still have a huge gap to fill.

Are there plans to expand into other value chains in agriculture?

We are looking into grape farming. Nigeria has good weather for grape production, especially in the northern and western parts of the country. We are looking into grape farming in the south, especially in Ogun state.

We can actually grow grapes on a commercial scale. We just acquired about 42 acres in the Alabata/Akintobi area of Ogun State. We will commence R&D for grape cultivation in 2027/2028 timeframe.

Countries like Norway make a lot of by-products from fish. Are you planning to produce some by-products, such as Omega-3 and calcium?

It’s going to be a full value chain, leveraging technology. When you smoke catfish, it produces oil, and you can derive Omega-3 from there. And other things. And then the bone itself can be crushed for calcium and as feed for the fish and other livestock.

We are putting everything in place to begin to add other value chains to it. We will commence our hatchery operation in the second quarter of this year. We have acquired commercial-grade smokers for our smoking operations as we expand the value chain.

Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi is a journalist with over five years’ reporting experience. She writes on industry, agriculture, commodities, climate change, and environmental issues. She is fellow of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa.

Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date