Oluyemisi Iranloye has established Africa’s largest cassava processing factory in Nigeria.
Yemisi is managing director and CEO of Psaltry International Limited, a large cassava processor based in south-west Nigeria, has built her success on an inclusive business model that places smallholder farmers at the centre of operations.
In 2005, Yemisi Iranloye founded her cassava production company, Psaltry International Limited, with personal savings from marketing farm produce. Six years later, in response to market demand for processed cassava products, she expanded the business with the establishment of a factory in Alayide village, Oyo State.
Demand for these high-quality cassava products among Nigeria’s manufacturing industries continues to grow due to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and scarcity of imported grains such as wheat and barley, which make locally-sourced and readily-grown raw materials like cassava more cost-effective.
It operates 8,000 hectares and a network of 6,000 farmers. Its factory produces 35,000 tones of starch and cassava flour per year.
It is important to point out that it achieves more than 10 billion turnover per year.