Before starting ColdHubs, you created a radio station, the Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio. How did this experience influence the development of ColdHubs?
My work with The Smallholders Foundation as a community radio broadcaster on our Smallholder Farmers Rural Radio (FARM 98.0 FM) is to travel to several remote villages to talk with smallholder farmers and identify challenges and opportunities facing smallholder agriculture. In the course of this work I saw the impact of post harvest losses due to lack of reliable cold storage, and I put together a team at Smallholders Foundation to search for solutions. In 2014 we built a solar powered walk-in cold room and tested and validated the technology in 11 districts of Nigeria. Having achieved success, we decided to spin-off the research into a new venture, ColdHubs.
What was one of the biggest challenges you've faced while launching ColdHubs?
What’s one of the top skills that you think a social entrepreneur needs to succeed?
I think there are a lot of skills needed by a social entrepreneur, but from my experience the most important are determination, commitment, and hard work.
What was one of the biggest challenges you've faced while launching ColdHubs?
Over the course of my work, I have witnessed many failures. But I think my most favourite was the delay to launch The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio in 2007, four years after I established the Smallholders Foundation in 2003. I was only 21 at this time and I failed to convince the Nigerian government authorities that at 21 I really wanted to own and run a farmers radio. I was disappointed in myself and everyone around me. The authorities told me I was too young and I should look for a formal job to do to gain experience. I went to communities I wanted to situate the radio station and started to work with the farmers, educating them on best practices to increase their agricultural yield. Within two years I became very well known in the area as the only agricultural extension worker. I received approval from government two years later to launch the radio station. The agricultural extension work I did for four years before the radio station went on air, teaching farmers new trends in agricultural and linking them to seed suppliers and credit created wide acceptance beyond my imagination. It built and established trust, which we still enjoy with them to date.
What drives you to keep going, even when it gets tough?
How do you define success for yourself?
What do you hope for in the future?
What are the main obstacles that you think social entrepreneurs face?
What advice would you give to a social entrepreneur just starting out?
Is there something you think we should all be doing to make the world a better place?
Want to go learn more about ColdHubs? Check out their website!
