THE FUSE

When Alexander Zanders stood on a patch of land in Oyo State in 2015, he planned to build a simple processing plant. But as the naira plunged, importing machinery became impossible. Forced to pivot, Zanders bought 100 acres, started farming himself, and ran a small experiment supplying 15 local maize growers with inputs on credit. The result? Crop yields tripled, farmer revenues doubled, and Zanders extracted the financial signals hidden in the soil. In this feature, OPEYEMI KARREM tells the story of how UfarmX has facilitated over $6.8 million in trade across 10,000+ farmers in Nigeria, Senegal, and Liberia—not by farming or direct lending, but by turning rural farm data into credit ratings for commercial banks and retailers.