Nigeria’s agricultural sector remains a cornerstone of the economy, employing over a third of the labor force and contributing significantly to non-oil GDP growth. According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data reported by Nairametrics, agriculture grew by 3.79% year-on-year in Q3 2025, improving from 2.55% in Q3 2024. This reflects a gradual recovery driven largely by crop production, mechanisation efforts, and rising private-sector investment. Across 2025, broader GDP growth strengthened to 3.98% in Q3 2025 and 4.07% in Q4 2025, with agriculture consistently ranking among the top non-oil contributors alongside trade, manufacturing, and telecoms.
Yet structural challenges persist. Post-harvest losses, climate shocks, insecurity in food belts, weak storage infrastructure, and financing gaps continue to constrain productivity. Against this backdrop, a new generation of agribusiness founders under 40 is reshaping Nigeria’s food systems through technology, processing, logistics, export aggregation, and climate-smart farming models. This list highlights some of the most inspiring agribusiness founders under 40, ranked from youngest to oldest, whose ventures are solving pressing inefficiencies in the agricultural value chain.
Aisha Raheem-Bolarinwa is a Nigerian agritech founder and CEO of Farmz2U, a data-driven platform helping farmers make informed decisions around crop planning, input usage, and market access. With a background in Economics from Queen Mary University of London and an MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Raheem-Bolarinwa brings a systems-oriented approach to agricultural transformation. Her career began in financial services and consulting, including roles in investment and client services, before she shifted focus toward food systems and sustainability.
In 2018, she founded Farmz2U to address a persistent gap in agriculture: the lack of reliable data guiding planting decisions. The platform helps farmers determine what to plant, when to plant it, and where to sell, with the goal of reducing post-harvest losses and improving yield efficiency across smallholder farming systems. Her work gained early recognition through sustainability and innovation programmes, including participation in the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. Farmz2U has also been featured on global platforms such as Bloomberg and CNN.
While these founders drive innovation, broader economic indicators remain under scrutiny. For instance, discussions around Adebayo Adelabu resigns have sparked debate on energy policy, while Nma Lagos Fg, initiatives continue to shape regional development. Meanwhile, banks’ non-performing loans have drawn attention from financial analysts, and reports on un: north-east faces highlight ongoing humanitarian challenges. Even in the health sector, the influx of uk medical graduates into Nigeria’s workforce is reshaping labour dynamics. Amid these developments, agribusiness founders under 40 are proving that technology and entrepreneurship can transform one of Nigeria’s most vital sectors.
