Oluyemisi Iranloye

Oluyemisi Iranloye, CEO of Psaltry International Company Limited, a cassava processing company that produces cassava-based sorbitol, was already an established agripreneur based out of a remote village in Oyo State, Nigeria. Oluyemisi was inspired to start this company to raise the living standards of smallholder farmers and eradicate the pain of farmers who had to travel many kilometers to deliver their produce. Yet, from both a business and personal perspective, Oluyemisi felt there was more to be done. She long harbored a dream of setting up a foundation that would enable young and talented farmers and farmers’ children to access education to tertiary level. Her business also needed to break a local ceiling, to expand its farmer and consumers reach, and to live its ambition of being the most preferred cassava processor in Africa, and in the world.

So, when Oluyemisi heard that AGRA’s VALUE4HER had launched a premier recognition scheme for women in agribusiness called Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA), she quickly latched onto the opportunity and applied, seeing it as a gateway to realizing her dreams—and indeed it was! From a pool of over 1,500 remarkable women in agribusiness across the continent, Oluyemisi emerged the Grand Prize Winner of USD 25,000. As an additional benefit to winning WAYA, AGRA also inducted her into an accelerator program ran by the FAO’s International Agri-Food Network (IAFN) where she was paired with another leading woman agripreneur in Nigeria for further mentorship. In addition to using part of the prize money to grow her business, Oluyemisi with the support of her mentor was finally able to set up her dream Brilliant Students Scholarship Program, and in 2 years has supported over 20 young and talented farmers and farmers’ children to further their education to tertiary level. The Foundation has become a beacon of hope for the community and is already attracting different partners to further this course. Oluyemisi’s Psaltry International Company Limited has also blossomed into a leading agro-allied cassava processing company with a network of over 4000 out-grower farmers, raising the living standards of the host community from below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day to $5-10 per day.