Meet Udokanma Georgewill: The Brain Behind Yemert’s Agritech Innovation
Yemert, a registered agritech company operating in Nigeria and Rwanda, is co-founded by Udokanma Georgewill.
The company is building a USSD-first platform aimed at transforming how smallholder farmers access markets, manage risk, and earn stable incomes.
The key objectives focus on helping farmers move from uncertainty to a more predictable income system through crop risk protection, structured market access, and carbon financing opportunities.
Georgewill said:
“I started thinking about agriculture from a very unexpected place. I was trying to renew my mum’s health insurance, and it led me into a deeper reflection about how protection systems work in society.”
Source: Facebook
That reflection, she explained, evolved into research that exposed a structural gap in agriculture.
She said:
“Farmers do some of the hardest work in the economy, yet they operate with the least protection.
“One bad season can wipe everything out. That’s when I started asking why agriculture didn’t have the same structured systems other sectors enjoy.”
With a background in technology and venture building, Georgewill said Yemert emerged at the intersection of systems thinking and agricultural realities.
She said:
“We didn’t just want to support farmers at the edges. We wanted to redesign how they participate in the system entirely."
A key design decision for the company was accessibility. Because many farmers do not use smartphones or reliable internet services, Yemert was built as a USSD-first platform.
Georgewill added:
“We had to meet farmers where they are. That is why we built a USSD system so they can access services without needing internet.”
How Yemert works
Yemert operates through three core product layers designed to address interconnected challenges in agriculture.
The first layer, Yemert Secure, provides crop risk protection aimed at reducing the impact of losses from climate or market shocks.
The second, Yemert Market, connects farmers directly to structured buyers in an effort to reduce dependence on middlemen and stabilise pricing.
The third, Yemert Credits, focuses on climate-smart agriculture and carbon-linked opportunities that allow farmers to benefit from the environmental value created through their farming activities.
Georgewill said:
“Farming is not a single problem “It is a chain of risks. If you only solve one part, the farmer is still exposed.”
She said the integrated model is designed to allow farmers to produce, protect, access markets, and receive payments through a unified system, including via a USSD code.
From tech ecosystem to agriculture
Georgewill said her journey into agriculture was gradual, shaped by years of working in technology and with early-stage founders across Africa.
She said:
“I didn’t wake up and decide to do agriculture.It came from observing problems over time and deciding I wanted to solve one at scale.”
Her experience in venture building, she added, helped shape Yemert’s structured approach to product development and scaling.
Early-stage focus on trust and validation
Yemert began with a lean model focused more on validation than revenue, as the team worked to understand farmer behaviour and system realities.
She said.
“In agriculture, if you rush monetisation without trust, the system collapses later."
The company is currently prioritising infrastructure development and farmer activation ahead of large-scale expansion.
Growth and expansion plans
One of Yemert’s early milestones has been building trust among farmers, a critical factor in a sector where skepticism toward new platforms is common.
The company is now preparing for a large-scale farmer activation phase targeting 150,000 farmers across 30 states in Nigeria.
Georgewill said the expansion reflects growing demand from farming communities who have engaged with earlier outreach programmes.
She said:
“We started seeing farmers from neighbouring communities asking when we would reach them. That shaped the decision to expand.”
Source: Facebook
Challenges in building agricultural systems
Georgewill said one of the biggest challenges has been building trust with farmers whose livelihoods depend on predictable outcomes.
“You are dealing with people whose income is at stake, so scepticism is natural.
She also pointed to fragmented infrastructure in African agriculture as another barrier.
“We are building structure on top of systems that are still informal in many places,” she said. “That requires patience and consistency.”
Future vision
Looking ahead, Georgewill said Yemert’s focus is on successfully executing its nationwide expansion and strengthening system reliability.
Beyond Nigeria, the company plans to scale across Africa, with the goal of supporting millions of farmers through structured income systems.
“We are not just building for farmers today. We are building for how agriculture should work in the future.”
She added that carbon financing represents a key growth area as global demand for climate-linked agricultural solutions increases.
Broader impact
Georgewill said she believes Yemert could contribute to broader structural changes in agriculture, including food security, climate resilience, and policy development.
She said:
“If farmers are stable, everything else becomes more stable."
Advice for entrepreneurs
For aspiring founders, she advised focusing on real problems and staying close to the communities they aim to serve.
She added:
“Start with God, then focus on real problems that affect real people. And stay close to the people you are building for. They will teach you more than any framework.”
Source: Legit.ng
