Zowasel, an agricultural technology company focused on building sustainable value chains to improve farmers’ productivity, sustainability, and profitability, is happy to announce Anietie Bassey as Director of Partnerships.
Bassey will play a crucial role in positioning Zowasel’s Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS), an AI-powered Predictive Dynamic System (PDS), and human-powered Dynamic Variable System (DVS) that enable financial institutions to make faster lending decisions in a low-risk and cost-effective manner, specifically targeting smallholder farmers worldwide. Leveraging his extensive background and experience, Bassey will establish connections between Zowasel and financial institutions, facilitating streamlined lending processes for agricultural enterprises, co-operatives, and individual farmers on the platform.
Expressing his excitement about joining the Zowasel team, Bassey stated, “I believe Zowasel has a great business model and a talented management team that uniquely positions it to capitalize on the changing agricultural landscape.” He recognized the interconnectedness of agriculture, finance, and technology in the development of sustainable value chains and believes Zowasel is in a prime position to provide cost-effective and timely technological solutions that enable smallholder farmers, processors, and financial institutions to connect and transact seamlessly across value chains.
Bassey brings a wealth of experience to his new role at Zowasel. He has worked at prestigious institutions such as Amazon.co.uk, HSBC Bank UK, United Bank for Africa, and Union Bank of Nigeria for several years. Before becoming Director of Partnerships, Bassey served as a Consultant with Airtel Nigeria and an advisor to Zowasel.
He led the transition, deployment, and phased rollout of UBA Prestige Banking in Nigeria as a Senior financial consultant. Achieved Over 200% Growth in Point of sale (POS) volume and monthly average collection, from N200M in 2012 to N850 M in 2013.
Bassey is a graduate of the University of Lagos. He also holds a master’s degree in Computing and Information Technology from the University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, and is a qualified member of the British Computer Society (BCS), the Chartered Institute for IT.
As Head of Alliances, Head, Business to Business at Union Bank of Nigeria, Bassey raised over 100 million USD in credit lines from the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) and the Bank of Industry (BOI) for on-lending to the Bank’s customers. He secured and managed several business partners for the bank, which grew revenue by over 60%.
With his rich IT background, he secured several regulatory approvals and implemented key products and services for Union Bank Nigeria, including Bancassurance, Agent Banking, Mobile Money, USSD Code, WhatsApp Banking, Advertising on Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Digital Signature for Account Opening, and Reintroduction of Foreign Exchange Transactions (FX) on Union Bank Cards. Union Bank’s call center in Ibadan is in partnership with key vendor relationships.
Most recently, as an independent consultant to Airtel Nigeria, he played a significant role in securing a banking license for Airtel’s SmartCash Payment Service Bank.
Jerry Oche, the CEO of Zowasel, expressed confidence in Bassey’s appointment, highlighting his extensive financial services background and partnership experience. Oche believes that Bassey’s strong leadership skills will contribute to the commercialization of Zowasel’s innovative agricultural technological solutions, driving profitability and growth for the company.
This leadership appointment aligns with Zowasel’s rigorous and comprehensive nomination and strategic appointment process. It reflects the company’s commitment to improving the productivity, sustainability, and profitability of smallholder farmers across agricultural value chains.
