Having reached a strategic partnership in Washington on February 4 two global companies – GeoPoll and Control Union – have announced that they are seeking partners in here after having already launched mobile surveying and agricultural certification, The Reporter learnt.
Roxana Elliot, communications head at GeoPoll responded to The Reporter via email that Control Union has been operating in Ethiopia for almost ten years, and GeoPoll and Control Union are now developing practical strategies to learn what Ethiopia’s smallholder farmers need to better produce and benefit from the products consumers love, especially its coffee. “We are currently seeking partners in Ethiopia who can utilize this program to connect smallholder farmers,” Elliot said.
Ethiopia is one of the six African countries that is set to implement the project for its world-known coffee and other agricultural products. Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria are the five countries included in the program while Indonesia and Philippines made the way through the Asian continent for their rice, tea and palm oil. According to Elliot, partnering allows Control Union to tap into GeoPoll’s multi-modal mobile platform and database of 200 million users, giving them access fastest and most cost effective data collection method available in emerging markets.
Together, GeoPoll and Control Union will utilize mobile survey to engage and utilize and educate smallholder farmers in emerging economies, with the goal of reaching 1million farmers by 2020 via SMS and voice messaging. With consumers demanding increased transparency, target value chains include coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, rice, tea, tobacco, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Colin Coleman, managing director, Goldman Sachs South Africa told The Reporter that emerging African markets have been enormously viewed by many global companies across the world, and the infrastructure in Africa has to be made up to standard in order to win their interest.
The panelist, in the Emerging Africa Summit 2015, held in Addis Ababa last week also pointed out that Ethiopia’s determination in unleashing its potential of boosting economy should be led with consistent infrastructure development including the telecom industry. GeoPoll is a mobile surveying platform with a database of nearly 200 million users in emerging markets. It connects researchers, businesses and aid organizations directly to mobile phone users in just about every country in the world.
[TheReporterEthiopia]