AgroInfoTech Africa Boss, AyoOluwa Okediji Advocates Cooperative-Driven Investments For Poultry Industry Growth
•By Oyeniyi Awojoodu
IBADAN – The Nigerian poultry industry is at a defining moment and requires urgent structural reforms to secure its future and ensure long-term sustainability.
This was the message delivered by leading agribusiness strategist and digital agriculture expert, AyoOluwa Okediji, at the recently concluded Oyo Mega Poultry Workshop 2025 in Ibadan.
Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Poultry Farming Through Cooperative Synergy and Strategic Investments,” Okediji called on poultry farmers, cooperative leaders, financial institutions, and policymakers to rethink the existing structure of the poultry sector.
He stressed the need to transition from fragmented, individually-driven operations to well-structured, cooperative-led enterprises capable of attracting sustainable financing and securing long-term viability.
“Our poultry sector cannot thrive on individual effort alone,” Okediji declared during his keynote presentation.
“We need to organise ourselves into cooperative clusters, build strong governance systems, and position ourselves to attract the level of investment needed to sustain this industry beyond this generation.”
The poultry industry, which contributes significantly to Nigeria’s agricultural GDP, continues to face numerous challenges.
These include rising feed costs, unstable market prices, lack of affordable financing, and weak business continuity structures.
Okediji argued that these systemic challenges can only be addressed through deliberate cooperative synergy, where smallholder poultry farmers pool resources, share risks and rewards, and benefit from economies of scale.
Drawing on lessons from successful global cooperative models such as Rabobank in the Netherlands and Landus Cooperative in the United States, Okediji introduced the FarmClusters Poultry Model, a locally adapted solution developed by Agribusiness Dynamics Technology Limited (AgDyna), a subsidiary of AgroInfoTech Africa.
The model is currently being piloted in Oyo State in partnership with PANOY Agribusiness Limited and local poultry cooperatives.
In his presentation, Okediji outlined key strategies designed to reposition Nigeria’s poultry sector for sustainable growth.
These include the formation of Cooperative Investment Clusters to enable bulk procurement of inputs, joint marketing, and access to finance; the establishment of Poultry Aggregation Centres to stabilise market prices and improve distribution; the adoption of alternative feed solutions such as cassava peel mash and insect-based protein to lower production costs by up to 30 percent; the integration of digital technologies to improve traceability, stakeholder profiling, and real-time advisory services; and embedding succession planning and legacy strategies to ensure business continuity beyond the lifetime of the founders.
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“We must not leave the future of poultry farming to chance,” Okediji emphasised. “Succession planning and strategic investment partnerships are essential if today’s poultry businesses are to evolve into tomorrow’s sustainable enterprises.”
A major highlight of the workshop was a special Response Session, where three seasoned industry experts, an experienced poultry farmer with a finance background, a senior bank manager, and a poultry cooperative leader with over 17 years of experience reacted to Okediji’s presentation.
Each respondent affirmed the relevance of the proposed model and stressed the need for urgent adoption of cooperative-driven enterprise structures to address the fragility of Nigeria’s poultry sector.
In his closing remarks, Okediji delivered a strong call to action to all stakeholders: “The time to act is now. Our industry’s sustainability will depend on how quickly we can organise, invest, and build a poultry ecosystem anchored on collective strength and strategic partnerships.”
AyoOluwa Okediji is an award-winning agribusiness consultant, pioneer digital agriculture innovator, and the Founder & Group CEO of AgroInfoTech Africa. With almost two decades of experience, he is recognised across Africa as a thought leader in the development of scalable, technology-driven agri-food value chain models.