Agripreneur seeks transformation of land into assets

Chief Executive Officer, Moor Farms, Olumuyiwa Adewunmi, has urged domestic and international investors on a strategic shift toward the transformation of underutilized agricultural land into high-performing economic assets.

As Nigeria grapples with rising food import bills despite vast agricultural potential, Adewunmi, makes a case for investor-driven farm estates designed to convert the nation’s dormant arable land into structured, income-generating assets.

Speaking in Lagos, Adewunmi described millions of hectares of unused farmland scattered across the country as “sleeping capital” capable of delivering both national food security and private investor returns if paired with the right mix of finance, technology and professional farm management.

“We are sitting on a goldmine that requires only the right marriage of technology and capital to erupt into a primary driver of our GDP. Our mission at Moor Farms is to bridge that gap between idle soil and industrial-scale productivity,” he said.

Against the backdrop of an estimated 77 million hectares of largely underutilised arable land and an annual food supply deficit of about $22 billion, Adewunmi argued that the country’s next generation of high-net-worth individuals could emerge not from speculative financial markets but from structured investment in primary agricultural production.

“The same Nigeria has 77 million hectares of arable land. The same Nigeria has food shortage. Every year, we have a deficit of $22 billion,” he said. “If we channel disciplined private capital into structured farm estates, even 10 per cent of that gap becomes a commercially viable entry point for investors willing to build wealth from the soil.”

He argued that the current economic climate demands a move away from speculative investments toward tangible, impact-driven ventures. By deploying modern irrigation systems, data-driven crop management, and robust supply chain logistics, Moor Farms claims that even the most neglected plots can be revitalised into high-yield operations within a few harvest cycles.

He noted that there was no way the nation should continue to import food with land abundance noting the mismatch represents what he calls a commercially viable entry point for disciplined investment into primary production.

Operating under its parent platform, Moor Agro-Finance and Investment Bank, Moor Farms has introduced an estate-based investment model designed to link investors directly to titled, income-producing farmland without requiring day-to-day farm management. At the centre of the company’s rollout strategy is a 400-acre estate in Kogi State, where individual investors acquire one-acre parcels priced at ₦6 million.

“You own it. You are buying it. It is for life. One acre is six million. And from the beginning of the farming season, I know how much you will get at the end,” Adewunmi explained.

Within the estate, production is split across three major crops — cashew, cassava and corn — selected for their export demand, domestic consumption potential and relatively predictable harvest cycles. Cashew accounts for 40 per cent of land allocation, cassava takes 35 per cent, while corn occupies the remaining 25 per cent. However, investors are permitted to adjust this mix depending on their preferred maturity horizon.

“If you are a subscriber, you can decide: I want 60 per cent cassava, I want 10 per cent cashew. We start in March. By July — four months — you get your return. Corn goes in four months. Cassava is nine months,” he said.

Based on internal projections provided by the company, a N6 million investment is expected to generate N635,000 in the first year and N720,000 in the second year, producing cumulative revenue of N843,000 within the initial operating cycle. Adewunmi disclosed that Moor Farms has already closed its pilot fundraising round at N2.7 billion.

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He noted that one of the structural inefficiencies the firm is targeting is the high rate of post-harvest losses, estimated across the sector at about 40 per cent due to storage gaps, logistics breakdowns and fragmented market access. The estate model, he said, incorporates on-site processing facilities intended to absorb harvested output immediately and reduce waste.

“A lot of times, when we harvest, 40 per cent gets wasted. So what do we do? In each estate where we are farming tomatoes, there will be a tomato processing facility. We are farming rice — there will be a paddy processing facility. We are doing cassava — there will be an ethanol facility. So that is off-taking. Zero waste. Every allotment — we take 100 per cent off-take from them,” Adewunmi said.

 “Every day you open your app, it shows you your balance in your bank account. It shows you the value of your assets — your land and your products. If your produce is ready, it will tell you: I can sell today at this price,” he added.

The company currently holds secured title to approximately 20,000 hectares of land across multiple locations, with estates to be fully fenced and monitored as part of its physical security protocol.

“At the moment, we have 20,000 hectares of land. Secured. All our estates will be fenced. We have agricultural drones all the way — for surveillance, and also to check plants in the estates for water deficiency and nitrogen deficiency,” he said.

Produce from Moor Farms estates, he noted, is benchmarked against pricing on the AFEX Commodities Exchange, enabling subscribers to transact within a recognised market framework rather than relying on informal middlemen. The company is also developing a warehouse receipts system that would allow stored crops to serve as collateral for formal bank financing.

“We benchmark the product with AFEX exchange. So from the beginning of the farming season, at the end of the season, almost everyone knows what they get. It is called precision farming. That is what we are doing,” Adewunmi said.

Beyond its Kogi pilot estate, Moor Agro-Finance and Investment Bank is positioning the platform to extend financial and technological tools to smallholder farmers traditionally excluded from formal credit systems.

“This is an integrated solution. We are an agro-finance bank and a farm limited. The problems of agriculture in Nigeria start with security — of land and of finance. We are solving both,” he said.