Willfields and THF: Leveraging Operations for Value Chain Redefinition

A self-described serial investor in Nigeria, who began with an oil and gas supply enterprise, diversifies into trading agricultural products to stabilize his revenues from oil trade. He also manages a nonprofit organization that supports small scale enterprises which helped women-owned enterprises in local villages. Noticing their primitive methods of producing cassava, he becomes determined to transform their practices. A believer in learning firsthand, he thinks that a large demonstration farm where they can work and learn would be the best way. He invited firms to participate in the endeavor to create a supply chain that represents a ‘fair collaborative framework,’ spreading benefits among all, but finds that not many investors share his spirit. A case to consider what social responsibility means in agriculture, particularly where enterprises need to work with producers; how one might mobilize investments for such a purpose; and the potential to take advantage of development funds for doing so.