Speaking during a stakeholder engagement in Abuja, Yahaya highlighted the urgent need to prioritise connectivity and technology in underserved communities, noting that many farmers are unable to access critical tools due to poor network coverage.

“How many of these tools can a rural farmer use without stable internet? That’s part of what we’re solving,” he said.

Yahaya said Extension Africa, now in its fourth year, was established to address long-standing neglect of rural farmers and the frontline agents who support them.

According to Yahaya, the organisation has connected over 250,000 farmers to markets in the last two years, and continues to expand its reach.

“The foundation of Extension Africa was built on trying to build a platform where farmers are respected. But how do we sustain the people managing the farmers if we don’t have a justifiable system of paying them?” he asked.

“Extension Africa has been able to bridge the gap between farmers and support systems. We want to plug into an agent network globally, where a farmer can be connected to an agent — anywhere.”

Yahaya said the organisation is tackling major gaps in farmer availability, low agent coverage, and market integration. He noted that in some areas, one extension agent is responsible for up to 10,000 farmers.

To improve conditions, he said Extension Africa’s B2B platform increases agent earnings from an average of $30 to $45 to as much as $150 to $300 a month.

Yahaya said the company also runs an agent academy that trains extension workers in digital literacy, economic awareness, soft skills, and feedback collection — part of a broader push to redefine rural extension services.

As part of its future plans, Yahaya said Extension Africa is scaling climate-smart farming initiatives and developing a gender inclusion feature that matches female farmers with female agents to boost engagement and safety.

He added that the organisation is digitising agent profiles for global access, allowing stakeholders to locate and collaborate with agents across regions.

One of the biggest challenges, Yahaya said, is the high cost of onboarding farmers into a functioning ecosystem.

“It’s very expensive, and that’s why we’re targeting a 50% reduction in onboarding costs. We started championing this with Heifer International, and we’ve made significant progress,” he said.

He said the organisation is also building out features to support gender inclusion, allowing female farmers to be matched with female agents to improve engagement and safety.

He added that the company currently has a presence in Kenya and is building systems tailored to the East African context, while strengthening its Nigerian operations to support the estimated five million farmers scattered across the country.

Yahaya called for stronger collaboration with governments and the private sector to scale infrastructure and improve digital access, adding that real transformation in the agricultural sector requires strategic investment and systems thinking.