Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust Commits to Enroll a Minimum of 2 Million New Members to Tingo and Agrees to a Target to Enroll at Least 4 Million New Members
NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tingo, Inc, OTC Markets (TMNA) (“Tingo” or the “Company”) announced that Tingo Mobile PLC (“Tingo Mobile”) has today opened a head office in Accra, Ghana and has launched nationwide operations. Tingo Mobile’s business in Ghana is held through a wholly owned subsidiary, Tingo Mobile Ghana Ltd (“Tingo Ghana”).
Ghana is regarded as a hugely important market for Tingo Mobile and its Pan-African expansion strategy, not least because of its strong and well-developed agricultural sector, as well as its considerable and thriving export market in non-staple products. Tingo Mobile has committed to work closely with the Ghanaian Government and its Ministry of Food and Agriculture to achieve its goal of growing Ghana’s agriculture sector’s contribution towards Gross Domestic Product, to be in excess of 25% by 2025 (25% of 2025 forecast GDP = $20.2 billion. Source: United Nations), compared to 19.1% in 2020, including through the improvement of crop production efficiency and crop yield, as well as the reduction of post-harvest losses.
To coincide with its launch, Tingo Ghana has agreed on a landmark trade deal with the Kingdom of Ashanti, through the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust. The Kingdom of Ashanti presides over Ghana’s Ashanti Region, which has a population of approximately 5.4 million, and through its dominant position in Ghana and Ghana’s agricultural sector, also has a degree of influence over much of the country’s population of 32 million. Under the terms of the trade deal, the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust has committed to enroll a minimum of 2 million new members with Tingo within 120 days of signing and has agreed on a target to increase such enrollments to at least 4 million members.
Tingo Mobile is replicating in Ghana the same proven business model that has generated more than $526 million of revenues and $298 million of net income before tax in Nigeria in the first half of 2022. In addition to rolling out its Nwassa Agri-Fintech marketplace platform in Ghana, Tingo Mobile is also plans to launch the TingoPay SuperApp in the coming weeks, to include payment services, in partnership with Visa.
The Nwassa platform is expected to benefit from significant revenues on both the buy-side and sell-side in Ghana where, because of more developed agricultural practices, farmers have a greater demand for inputs, including equipment, fertilizers, and pesticides, for example. Such market conditions in Ghana are expected to lead to a higher level of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which in turn is expected to lead to a further increase in profitability in 2023 and beyond.
Ghana and the trade deal with the Ashanti Kingdom Investment Trust also represents a considerable opportunity for Tingo Mobile’s planned export business, not least because Ghana, as the gateway to Africa, is the location of several of Africa’s busiest seaports. Ghana has already established a thriving agricultural export market, as the second largest cocoa producer in the world, and as a major producer of other non-staple crops such as palm oil, cocoa paste, shea butter, coconuts, and cashew nuts. Moreover, the Kingdom of Ashanti accounts for a large portion of the production of such crops and has committed to work closely with Tingo Mobile to further develop and grow Ghana’s agricultural export trade.
Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Mobile Founder and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “When we announced our merger with MICT earlier this year, we explained that one of the key rationales for the transaction was MICT’s ability to help accelerate the globalization and dollarization of our business. As we move towards completion of the merger later this month, today’s launch into Ghana is tangible evidence of the strategy’s execution between MICT and Tingo and represents an important milestone in our international expansion.
“Having significantly strengthened our dominant position in Nigeria through our recent partnership with AFAN, our goal is to roll out the Tingo Mobile model throughout Africa, and into other parts of the world, where we strive to foster digital and financial inclusion, increase food production efficiency, and improve food security. Through our rapid growth in Nigeria, we have already demonstrated the effectiveness of our business model, including helping farmers increase crop yields, reducing post-harvest losses, and achieving better prices for their crops, and we look forward to bringing the same benefits to the farmers of Ghana.
“With its government’s policy to markedly increase agricultural production, Ghana was a natural decision for our expansion, and I have every confidence that the Ghanaian market has all the attributes required to enable us to replicate Tingo Mobile’s success and achievements in Nigeria.
“To support us in our roll-out across Ghana, we are both delighted and privileged to be working with the Kingdom of Ashanti through the trade deal we have signed. We look forward to enjoying mutual success with our esteemed partner and towards working with them to bring the benefits we know can be delivered to the considerable number of members they enroll with us.”
About Tingo
Tingo is the leading Agri-Fintech company operating in Africa, with a marketplace platform that empowers social upliftment through mobile, technology and financial access for rural farming communities. Tingo’s novel “device as a service” model allows it to add market leading applications to enable customers to trade, buy top ups, pay bills, access insurance and lending services. With 9.3 million existing customers, Tingo is seeking to expand its operations across select markets in Africa. Tingo’s strategic plan is to become the eminent Pan-African Agri-Fintech business delivering social upliftment and financial inclusion to millions of SME farmers and women-led businesses.
Tingo, including its subsidiary Tingo Mobile, offers its comprehensive platform service through use of smartphones – ‘device as a service’ (using GSM technology) -- to empower a marketplace to enable subscribers/farmers within and outside of the agricultural sector to manage their commercial activities of growing and selling their production to market participants both domestically and internationally. The ecosystem provides a ‘one stop shop’ solution to enable such subscribers to manage everything from airtime top ups, bill pay services for utilities and other service providers, access to insurance services and micro finance to support their value chain from ‘seed to sale’.
As of June 30, 2022, Tingo had approximately 9.3 million subscribers using its mobile phones and Nwassa platform. Nwassa is Africa’s leading digital agriculture ecosystem that empowers rural farmers and agri-businesses by using proprietary technology to enable access to markets in which they operate. Farm produce can be shipped from farms across Africa to any part of the world, in both retail and wholesale quantities. Nwassa’s payment gateway also has an escrow structure that creates trust between buyers and sellers. Tingo’s system provides real-time pricing, straight from the farms, eliminating middlemen. Tingo’s users pay for produce bought using available pricing on its platform.
Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding possible future circumstances. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company’s current expectations and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements including, in particular, any risks and uncertainties with respect to the Company’s operations, as well as those contained in the Company’s quarterly, annual, and periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results, events, and performance may differ. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The inclusion of any statement in this release does not constitute an admission by the Company or any other person that the events or circumstances described in such statements are material.
Contacts
Tingo, Inc. Contact Information
Rory Bowen – Chief of Staff
(646) 847-0144
