In this interview with Flora IP, Oscar Ekponimo discusses his ground-breaking technology driven projects: Chowberry and Gallery of Code.
Oscar studied Computer Science at the University of Calabar, Nigeria and completed an online course on technology entrepreneurship as part of the inaugural Stanford Technology Ventures programme run by Stanford University. In 2016, he won the Rolex Award for Enterprise, and in 2017, Time Magazine named him one of the Next Generation Leaders.
Flora IP (FI): In 2014, you established Chowberry, a cloud based application service that connects supermarkets to NGOs and low-income earners allowing them to buy food at a discount. In April 2018, you launched the Gallery of Code, a research and innovation laboratory, can you share more about these projects?
Oscar Ekponimo (OE): Chowberry is a technology driven service that reduces food waste from the retail and consumption levels of the agricultural value chain.
Chowberry’s novel contribution is that it systematically redirects food, which would otherwise have been wasted, to low-income demographics and people facing food poverty.
We have successfully built an efficient system that turns rescued food to healthy nutritious food options for low-income earners and people who cannot afford certain types of food based on their income levels.
The Chowberry app allows retailers to upload data on products approaching the end of shelf life. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and food benefit organisations purchase the food at discounted prices to facilitate their feeding programmes. So far, we have reached 20,000 households in Nigeria.
On 14 May 2018, we launched a campaign called #ChowberryFeeds50k. We are looking to reach 50,000 people via crowdfunding.
Gallery of Code comes from a gap in research and development (R & D) in Nigeria and Africa. It is a space for creating new inventions that are socially conscious and can resolve local challenges in five thematic areas: agriculture, health, education, smart green energy, and media arts.
Gallery of Code is in partnership with a Science, Arts, and Technology Research institute in Austria called Ars Electronica. Ars Electronica has a wider network of partners which we will be working with including MIT media lab and Queensland University of Technology.
We strongly believe that the Gallery of Code will produce young Nigerians that will create new innovations to solve problems in the five thematic areas identified.
Accordingly, we would be admitting carefully selected cohorts of young intelligent engineers and designers. A call for applications for our first programme called ‘Worklearn’ will be published soon.
FI: What inspired you to establish these projects?
OE: I was inspired to start Chowberry based on my personal experience of hunger growing up. I understand how it feels to be hungry. Therefore, I have decided to employ technology as a tool to help solve food insecurity.
Three things inspired my establishment of Gallery of Code, First, the desire for more people to create solutions like I have. Second, the gap in R & D in Nigeria. Third, the inadequate curriculums in many African Universities. Gallery of Code is a mechanism outside of the University education system that fast tracks the culture of advanced innovation and R & D.
FI: Can you share the impacts that your projects have made so far?
OE: Chowberry has reached 20,000 households in Nigeria mainly by providing affordable healthy foods in local communities. We have done several food drives and outreaches both directly and with partner NGOs. For example, we had an outreach programme in Itedo Community during the World Food Day in 2017. We have also created employment and volunteering opportunities.
FI: What has contributed to your success?
OE: To start with, my Christian faith which I confidently share, plays a major role in my success. I believe in God and I believe in the vision God has given me. My faith helped me launch and scale ventures in Nigeria where start-ups face lots of challenges.
Beyond my faith, winning the Rolex Award for Enterprise and the dedicated team of people who I work with have also contributed to my success.
Overall, believing in my dream and picturing the peak I want to reach gives me the drive, persistence, and tenacity to continue pushing myself despite some of the challenges I have faced like funding and bureaucracy.
FI: What messages would you share with other young Nigerians (and Africans) interested in contributing to the food and agriculture sectors?
OE:
Have a vision, be clear on your vision and purpose. Take the dive. Nothing is ever going to look like it would work. You must be tenacious and confident.
There are so many challenges that need to be solved in the food and agriculture value chains. Africans can build Africa.
I recommend opportunity recognition. Understand value chains. Study them. Find problems and solve them.
Young people interested in developing their technological skills can engage with Gallery of Code.
FI: Can you share your favourite information sources (books, websites, blogs, and journals)?
OE: Annual reports from the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA) based in the Netherlands. The CTA also publishes Spore magazine and ICT4Ag- ICT for Agriculture.
In fact, everything the CTA publishes is useful.
FI: As Nigeria is projected to be the third most populous country by 2050, what changes would you like to see in Nigeria (and Africa’s) food and agriculture sectors?
OE: Nigeria needs to transition from subsistence farming to mechanised agriculture. I hope to see improved systems, infrastructure, and policies that push growth in the food and agriculture sectors.
To learn more about Oscar’s brilliant projects, visit Chowberry and Gallery of Code.
Photo credit: Rolex Awards for Enterprise, Chowberry, and Gallery of Code.
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