Nanyang Business School students visit Nigeria

(from left) Que Boxi, Assistant Manager, NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies; NBS freshmen Cindrea D’Cruz, Megan Tan and Lim Rui Ying at Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, Nigeria 

Nanyang Business School (NBS) freshmen Lim Rui Ying, Megan Tan, and Cindrea D’Cruz are in Nigeria as part of an all-expense paid trip for winning the Singapore Business Case Competition x African Challenge 2023.

They arrived in Lagos on 23 July after a 16 hour flight from Singapore accompanied by Que Boxi, Assistant Manager, NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies. They were received by Damilola Adeniyi, Corporate Affairs Manager of Olam Agri at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. The following day they were received by Ashish Pande, the Country Head of Olam Agri at the corporate head office in Iganmu and were briefed on the various operations of Olam Agri in the country.

The visitors also had a video call with Dr Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Climate, Environment and Natural Capital who touched on the proposals presented by the team during the case competition. He also provided more guidance on the on the deliverables from this trip. The trio then proceeded to make their proposal presentation to Anil Nair, Business Head of the Rice business vertical. The two sides conducted detailed discussion on specific aspects of the agriculture sector in Nigeria and explored ways in which the students' proposal could be implemented.

The students had proposed three recommendations that tackled three critical issues faced by the agricultural sector in Nigeria. This includes erratic weather patterns, insufficient supply of fish fingerlings in the aquaculture sector, and a lack of green pastures for cows. Their solution could potentially not only help Olam Agri differentiate itself from competition but also help tackle food insecurity, climate vulnerability and farmer-herder conflict in the country.

Over the next six days the team visited the Olam Agri-run wheat milling plant and an edible oil factory. They also traveled to Abuja and Ilorin where they had meetings with various stakeholders including farmers who have benefited from the investments made by Olam Agri and visited an animal feed plant.

The students are expected to deliver a report of the trip and learnings in relation to their proposal at the end of their visit. This is the first time that a team of students from Nanyang Technological University have visited an African country as part of a programme initiated by the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies. 

Corporate Affairs Manager Damilola Adeniyi (left) gives the students an office tour of Olam Agri head office in Nigeria 

NTU team meets Ashish Pande, Country Head, Olam Agri, Nigeria (centre)

Discussion with Anil Nair, Business Head of Rice, Olam Agri, Nigeria 

Sundar G., Functional Head of Procurement explains the procurement process in Olam Agri

Amit Agarwal, Business Head of Integrated Feeds and Proteins, Olam Agri presents an overview of the aquaculture and poultry feed sector in Nigeria

Ranveer Singh, Plant Head, showing wheat grains to the students

Getting introduced to Olam's fish feed

Meeting Nike Davies-Okundaye, a Nigerian batik and adire textile artist and the owner of Nike Art Gallery