How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
Hello Tractor is utilizing it’s proven technology to address the dual crippling challenges of COVID-19 and desert locusts that are threatening to significantly disrupt local food systems across Africa. We are doing this by mobilizing the UN FAO recommended insecticide for desert locust as well as existing supply of agricultural equipment, and managing the distribution of these equipment and insecticides by leveraging a thoughtful mix of Hello Tractor technology, machine service providers (MSPs), field managers, field technicians, and farmer managers who organize and book services on behalf of farmers. In times like this where harvest is being threatened and labour markets are contracting from COVID-19 and social distancing policies restricting the movements of migrant and rural labour, mechanization (and its effective deployment) holds a promise of filling the gap in the immediate term, while also creating a last-mile distribution channel to get other yield-improving inputs into the field and properly applied in the long-term (e.g. insecticides for the control of desert locust: organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates and synthetic pyrethroids).By deploying this technology and associate operational activities, Hello Tractor and its partners (e.g. AGRA, WFP, FtMA) are ensuring that the effects of the labour gap brought about by COVID-19 related movement restrictions and the threat of a desert locust infestation are effectively curbed.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a market ready product/service. I have sold to customers.
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
The Hello Tractor team is spread across the United States, Nigeria and Kenya. Hello Tractor currently employs 22 employees comprising agriculture, hardware and software engineering, data science, and sales. Our team believes in our mission and strives to empower communities to create shared benefits and transform the agricultural ecosystem, creating efficiencies that generate inclusive growth, reduce poverty, and help build stronger, more stable economies.Our CEO, Jehiel Oliver, leads the team, strategy, and partnerships. He was an advisor to two sitting U.S. presidents on business in Africa and has worked in global finance and agriculture for over a decade. He has worked as a financial sector consultant, providing advisory services for transactions totaling over a half billion dollars, in over ten countries, including conflict zones. Jehiel began his career in the US investment banking and private equity and studied economics at Florida A&M University and Cornell University.
What countries do you operate in?
Hello Tractor has offices across Nigeria, Kenya as well as the United States. We have however been successful in scaling our business into 10 other markets across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. These include Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India & Thailand
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
Yes
