The fastest growing Agribusiness Company in Nigeria, FarmKonnect Agribusiness Nigeria Plc, has reiterated its commitment to serve stakeholders and investors better, while promising to clear backlog of Returns On Investment (RIO) and compensate partners before middle of next year.
It reaffirmed its commitment to better serve its partners irrespective of the challenges it confronted with amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
The FarmKonnect Chief Executive Officer , Retired Naval commander, Oluwole Azeez made the declaration on Wednesday in Ibadan while briefing news men on its current activities.
Azeez cleared the air of some wrong perceptions being circulated online that the firm failed to pay its investors and updated its esteem partners on the present situation of things .
He said it was imperative for him to clear the air of some wrong perception being circulated about Farmkonnect, the governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi and the image of the brand as published in an online publication.
He said the publication had claims of fraud as regards delay in payment of ROI to some investors.
“2021 has been a challenging year for us, though last year, the impact of COVID-19 was minor but this year the company had its share of the impact hugely.
“Farmkonnect is not a company that is created as a crowd funding company, we run what we call agricultural real estate, where people buy properties which are controlled farming system and are kept on our farms.
“They can also take it to their house, the ownership is with the investor though we manage it for them , but to protect the investors, we go extra mile in getting insurance protection for all our clients.
“However, the things we cannot control on such investment, we identify on it and spell it out to the investors.
“This year started with a a first Merger, after we launched the snail village in Ekiti state, and for the first time after four years, we had a wind disaster and lost over 300 million worth of investment,” he said.
According to him, after this had happened, the company ran to its insurance provider and laid the complain.
He added that the insurance company came visiting the site for inspection and assessment, after which they paid for the claims in July.
“For the insurance company to pay a claim, it shows that there was truly a problem.
“After the whole process, the company reached out to the partners to update them on the issue at hand, what have been done so far and the steps taken to ensure their satisfaction,” he said.
He added that as part of conflict resolution put in place, it also started a stakeholders meeting, to inform partners on what they were doing.
Azees added that the company came with a conflict resolution department that took complains of partners to investors to clear their doubt on the usage of their capital.
“We are hoping that within the next six months, the snail farm should be fully back on ground and running.
“By the time we finish cycle of production, we would have lost a whole year, so we envisage that if we loose a year on 5000 square meters, we have built 10,000 square meters in replacement.
“We will be able to minimize the loss of the first year and reach out to our partners, all we appeal for is time.
“Our brand is a brand that is trustworthy, it’s a brand that is built on integrity and will never trade its integrity for anything,” he said.
He further attributed the delay in the payment of ROI to investors to the outbreak of COVID- 19 pandemic, travel restrictions which affected the company’s expatriate from coming into the country, alongside logistics problems.
“So far, we have been able to regularise ROI for some of our projects, among which are the poultry, cabbages, green house and some others.
“Farmkonnect remains focused and will continue to deliver its assignments, we will continue towards satisfying all our esteem partners,” he said.
