Championing an Agricultural Revolution in Nigeria

One man whose name sounded loudly and whose record of achievements shined very brightly to the deafening applause of the audience at the recently held MARKETING EDGE Brands and Advertising Awards of Excellence was Dr. Benoy Berry, the founder and chairman of Contec Global Group (CGG), a group of companies that is focused on using technology to sustainably advance humanity.
The Group was established by Dr. Benoy Berry, first as a security technology company, in 1984 in London, United Kingdom (UK) and its Africa’s Headquarter based in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. Few years after the company expanded its operations across the globe to Niamey in Republic of Niger, Bujumbura in Burundi and New Delhi, Goa and other cities in India.

Today, the company has strong presence in the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria. To its credit, the Group goes beyond geographical and political borders in biometric technology, agriculture, transportation, mobile and financial technology, telecommunication, and green energy. Its expertise in creating, developing, and implementing large-scale projects has made it to achieve uncommon results and rapid progress in sustainability across geographies over the years. The group and all its subsidiaries are driven by secure, smart and digital technologies. The subsidiaries are: The Continental Transfert Technique Limited involved in the Combined Expatriate Residents Permit and Aliens Card project, pioneering identification biometric technology in Nigeria, Niger and Burundi. The company championed the e-pass technology (e-identity card) also referred to as (e-gates) across the international and local airports in Nigeria.

Contec Global Agro Limited (CGAL) is the agricultural arm of the company using smart bio-solutions, bio-herbicides, bio-pesticides and organic fertilizer devoid of chemicals to overcome global food challenges. The other subsidiaries include: AfriOne, manufacturer of the Afri phone brands, the first of its kind in Nigeria and Africa. Brentwood Multiservice outfit is involved in empowering people across every strata and sector using state-of-the-art lottery technology.

There is Contec Global Infotech Nownow, its mobile money software for quick, error free and efficient financial transaction; the Weismann Autos, Contec Global Hospitality (CGH) and Contec Global Foundation (CGF). With companies’ world-wide presence in 4 continents, the multinational boasts of over 10,000 staff of mixed race spread across different countries and continents. Dr. Berry is changing the mindsets of young Africans with drive for organic farming, making it attractive and ‘sexy’ with the deployment of ICT, bio solutions and biotechnology coupled with product buy back mechanism to improve their living standards. His passion for organic farming using biotechnology has revolutionized a new eating culture for improved health.

Employment is being sustainably generated across countries through Weismann luxury Autos, Hospitality industry, Lottery, Energy exploration and Foundations. If there is anything, that Dr. Berry wants to be remembered for: It is the pursuit of zero hunger and food security in Nigeria using organic food crops devoid of any form of chemicals inputs in fertilizer. In a recent interview with a cross section of the Nigerian media, he admitted that there is no denying the fact that Nigeria cannot at the moment do without food importation largely due to its teeming population and therefore must fall back on imports to complement local production.

With appropriate ICT, biotechnology through tissue culture and bio-scientific solution for production of organic fertilizer, Dr. Berry is convinced that Nigeria can still regain its lost glory in food production as it were in the early 1960s and 70s. According to him, the time to return to Nigeria’s revolution through use of microbial nutrients from the local soil is now. There is no doubt that Nigerians will soon begin to harvest Dr. Berry’s investment in organic farming which has been his lifelong dream of putting organic food on the dining table of every Nigerian.

As at the time of this report, Mercy Corps and CGAL are collaborating to provide organic fertilizers to over 1000 farmers in Borno State and across the North-eastern flanks of the country. The immediate past Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, during a visit to the company’s organic plantation farm in March, 2019 said, “It is gladdening to see the first major organic banana plantation initiative being driven by Contec Global Agro Limited”, adding that it is government’s policy to bring in the private sector into agriculture. While expressing excitement at the 2500 hectares of organic banana plantation, Chief Ogbeh said: “With this, Nigeria can improve on local supply while cutting down on banana import”, adding that the organic bananas are also disease and chemical free.

Also applauding the company’s Agro Facilities, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State in a widely reported comment said, “The deployment of science research and ICT tools for the production of organic crops by Dr. Berry and his team of experts holds great potentials and promise for Nigeria to meet its food security challenge”.

On his own part, Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu, former Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture, during a visit on March 26 2018 said: “It has been such a wonderful experience visiting and inspecting the facilities here at CONTEC Global Agro Ltd. My first impression here is that the research work being undertaken here is one of the best secrets of the private sector initiatives in agriculture research in Nigeria. The future is great and we need to look forward to government’s encouragement to meet the requirement of this facility. I do look forward to coming here again as you are doing a good job, please keep it up. Thank you very much indeed for the opportunity to see the wonderful job that you are doing here”. An accomplished entrepreneur and philanthropist of international repute, often referred to as a ‘Global Citizen’, Dr. Berry holds a Doctorate Degree in Communication and Arts from the World Open University, USA and was awarded Doctors of Letters degree in Business Administration by the Commonwealth University, Belize in 2012. He holds a Masters of Arts in Finance from the University of Delhi’s School of Economics where he achieved a place in the University’s Roll of Honours merit List. His academic career took started from University of Delhi, earning First Class in Economics. Dr. Berry has been honoured severally for his ingenuity and contributions to life and living. He has bagged enviable awards across many sectors. These include: Visionary Founder Award by MARKETING EDGE Magazine – (June 2019); Award of Excellence by the World Security Congress (WSC) in Casablanca, Morocco- (March 2019); Fellow of Institute of Management (IMC) Nigeria Chapter (February 2019);

The Nigerian Media Awards and Honours for Excellence and Outstanding Contributions by Millennium Achievers London, UK- (September 2018); Champion of Youth Empowerment Award by the Nigerian Youth Congress (NYC)- December 2018; Man of the Year Award by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) 2015, Osun State; Public Sector Provider of the Year Award, by Independent Newspapers Limited (2014); Award of Excellence as Africa Hope and Peace Ambassador: Initiator of Miss NGO Nigeria Pageant: 2016; Outstanding Achievement Award for Investment in Agro-Allied by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ (2017); Black Achievers Award United Kingdom (UK) for work towards ICT development in Nigeria (2011); Outstanding Achievement in Technology Award in recognition of immense contribution to the advancement of biometric & e-Governance in Nigeria and Africa by the Nigerian Association of Science Journalists (NASJ), a member of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), Canada (2011); and African Order of Merit Award on e-Governance & Biometrics Technology by Institute for Governance Research and Leadership Technology (2011).

Significantly, the conferment of Visionary Founder on Dr. Benoy Berry, by MARKETING EDGE at its 2019 Brands and Advertising Awards of Excellence was both fitting and timely for a man who has committed over N20 billion to drive food security across the entire agriculture value chains at Kwali, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Edo State, Eruwa, in Oyo State and across the 36 States of the country.

Written by Seun Adams