A bottom-up platform strategy for agricultural commerce in Nigeria —
Farmer · Aggregator · Logistics · CCB · Multi-Channel Deployment
Farmers couldn't find buyers. Aggregators couldn't find produce at scale. The matching was entirely word-of-mouth.
Cash-only transactions with zero audit trail. Farmers shortchanged, aggregators over-extended, no accountability.
Grain moved from farm to silo with no tracking. No ETA, no proof of delivery, no dispute resolution mechanism.
11+ actor types with no unified registration system. Each relationship was informal, undocumented, and unscalable.
Intermediaries extracted value at every handoff with no platform enforcing agreed prices or automating settlement.
Cellulant had no real-time view of PAS activity, stock levels, logistics status, or fulfilment progress against CCB orders.
User research was physical — field visits, PAS observation, registration officer interviews. Not assumption-driven.
Farmers register produce via USSD, SMS, Facebook Bot or Web. System maps them to nearest PASO automatically and generates a transaction ID.
Price deducted from PASO wallet → transferred to Farmer wallet instantly on transaction submission. Loaders and logistics paid on completion.
CCB places a guaranteed order. Aggregators see it. Logistics uploads GPS data. CCB tracks every kilo from PAS to Silo in real time.
11 registration types on a single flow. Farmers auto-get a Tingg wallet on registration. Logistics, certifiers, and loaders onboarded via same system.
Prioritisation was driven by impact on the critical path — farmer payment. Everything else was downstream.
| Feature / Capability | Actor Impact | Revenue Risk If Skipped | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmer wallet & USSD produce registration | Farmer (primary) | Platform has no entry point without this | P0 |
| PASO wallet funding & buy-produce flow | Aggregator | No commerce possible — payments blocked | P0 |
| CCB guaranteed order placement | CCB (revenue anchor) | No contracted demand to fulfil against | P0 |
| Registration Officer Offtake App | All field actors | Farmers without smartphones are excluded | P1 |
| Logistics GPS tracking & payment | Logistics Co. | No proof of delivery → CCB disputes | P1 |
| Live admin operations dashboard | Cellulant internal | Operational blindness on fulfilment | P1 |
| Blockchain contract confirmation | CCB + Cellulant | Trust gap on large-volume orders | P2 |
| CMC & Community connector flows | Ecosystem growth | Nice-to-have; expands reach later | P2 |
| iOS app, additional billers, hotel payments | General Tingg users | Growth feature — not core to marketplace | P3 |
Prioritisation method: Impact × Risk matrix. P0 items were non-negotiable for MVP launch. P1 required within first sprint cycle post-launch. P2–P3 deferred to backlog.
MVP = the smallest surface that could complete one full grain transaction end-to-end.
NPS tracked after each market day session. Target: >40. Key question: "Would you use this platform instead of selling through informal brokers?"
Good product thinking is visible in the trade-offs, not just the features shipped.
A smartphone app would exclude 80%+ of target farmers in rural Northern Nigeria. USSD has near-universal reach on feature phones. We optimised for inclusion over richness.
Self-registration failed in pilots due to low literacy and tech comfort. Adding a human intermediary reduced drop-off dramatically and increased data quality at the PAS.
Cash required the PASO to carry large float, creating security risks and cash flow gaps. Digital settlement was safer, auditable, and enabled peer-to-peer cash conversion at the farmer's discretion.
iOS represented <5% of target user devices in the deployment states. Android web-first and the Tingg App covered the addressable market. iOS was deferred to growth phase.
CCB relationships are high-value B2B contracts requiring due diligence. Self-serve onboarding introduced compliance risk. Manual onboarding preserved contract quality.
Blockchain added significant complexity without being on the critical path for MVP. Wallet transaction logs provided sufficient audit coverage for initial CCB contracts. Trust was built first, then cryptographic proof layered on.
Root cause before any fix. Used in retrospectives and stakeholder escalations to find what's actually broken — not just what's visible.
Systematic decision analysis for time-sensitive calls. Separates problem definition from decision-making — clarity beats speed in high-stakes product choices.
80% of platform friction traced to 20% of causes. Used to focus development effort precisely on what moves the needle for the most actors.
Visual logic mapping for actor flow edge cases — especially multi-channel payment routing where rules branch significantly across user types.
Multiply expected outcome value by risk probability. Applied across backlog refinement and go-live planning to sequence features safely.
Reverse thinking, 'What If?' prompts, must-have vs nice-to-have rating charts. Brainstorm first — judge later.
First time the full grain commerce chain — farmer USSD registration to CCB silo receipt — was mapped and digitised on a single platform in Nigeria.
Wallet-to-wallet transfers replaced manual cash handling. Farmers, loaders, and logistics companies all paid instantly via Tingg — no float, no leakage.
Platform designed so farmers without smartphones could participate via USSD or SMS — driving rural inclusion without sacrificing transaction integrity.
Cellulant admin got a real-time dashboard: PAS activity, logistics GPS, live negotiations, payment status, and blockchain confirmation in one view.
I define the right problem before designing the solution. I prioritise by impact, ship the minimum that proves value, and measure what matters. I build bridges between business reality and engineering execution.
This document contains proprietary product strategy, platform architecture, and business analysis developed during active client engagement. It is shared selectively with verified recruiters and collaborators.