Ex-Jumia Executive Builds Agri-Tech Marketplace to Revolutionise African Agricultural Trade
Elohor Ebieroma, former product and platform leader at Jumia and M-KOPA, is pioneering an innovative agri-tech marketplace designed to tackle some of Africa’s most persistent agricultural trade challenges. As Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Cubeseed, she is creating a digital platform aimed at improving trust, transparency and access within fragmented markets across the continent.
Addressing inefficiencies in African agriculture
Agriculture engages more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s workforce yet remains hindered by limited financing, fragmented markets and weak logistics infrastructure, according to the World Bank. Similarly, the African Development Bank reports that the continent’s food and agriculture market could reach a trillion dollars by 2030, but only if barriers such as inefficient trade, poor storage and slow payments are addressed.
Recognising these deep-rooted problems, Ebieroma sheds light on the structural gaps constraining growth: “Markets with strong economic activity often lack infrastructure required for trust, transparency, and efficient exchange. Agriculture is a prime example, where delayed payments and limited financing impact both buyers and producers,” she said.
Cubeseed’s innovative approach
Cubeseed moves beyond a conventional marketplace by embedding digital infrastructure that enforces structured transactions. This includes escrow systems to secure payments, identity verification to improve trustworthiness, and integrated financing options to ease access to capital for producers and traders.
Ebieroma explains, “We aim to transition agricultural trade from informal, relationship-based deals to system-driven transactions that can scale reliably across borders and communities.” This approach utilises technology to solve longstanding economic issues in Africa’s fragmented agricultural chains.
Scaling with experience and vision
Ebieroma’s extensive background at Jumia, Fintrak Software, NowNow Digital Systems, and M-KOPA has honed her expertise in building data-driven platforms closely tied to revenue and operational performance. She points out, “Scalability is not simply rapid growth but building systems that maintain performance, reliability, and trust through expansion.”
This mindset reflects a broader transformation in Africa’s technology ecosystem, where digital marketplaces develop deeper infrastructure layers including payments, logistics, and identity verification. Such layers are critical in the agricultural sector, where cross-border trade is often informal and relies heavily on personal relations rather than formal systems.
Changing perceptions and building trust
Ebieroma critiques prevailing misconceptions among global investors who view African markets as too fragmented or early-stage for scalable tech. She counters, “Demand exists but the enabling systems for reliable transactions, payments, identity, and logistics are still developing.”
Trust remains a pivotal yet sometimes neglected element. Without it, transactions slow, risks multiply, and market growth stalls. Cubeseed intentionally inserts trust-building mechanisms that assure buyers and sellers, mitigating risks with verified identities and secure payment processes.
Bridging governance with agility
Serving between the UK public sector and the African tech ecosystem has shaped Ebieroma’s product philosophy. “The UK emphasises governance and data integrity, while African tech demands speed, adaptability and innovation under resource constraints,” she explains. Merging these perspectives enables Cubeseed to build flexible yet well-governed systems engineered for scale and sustainability.
A Zimbabwean opportunity in agri-tech infrastructure
Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector embodies many of the challenges Cubeseed aims to overcome. Fragmented markets, delayed payments, and limited finance impede farmers, traders, and processors striving to improve productivity. By adopting digital marketplaces with embedded trust and integrated financing, Zimbabwean value chains can be highly competitive under the country’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which prioritises agricultural modernisation and youth empowerment.
For example, small-scale farmers and agro-dealers in Mashonaland could leverage platforms like Cubeseed to access wider markets, secure payments promptly, and obtain affordable credit. Such innovation is essential to boost productivity, food security, and rural livelihoods in Zimbabwe.
Empowering women, youth and fostering economic growth
The design of digital marketplaces like Cubeseed holds vast potential for inclusion. By improving access to finance and formalising trade, they enable women and young entrepreneurs to participate more fully in agricultural value chains—an imperative aligned with Zimbabwe’s national goals for equitable economic transformation.
Ebieroma also invests in the broader technology ecosystem by mentoring early-stage founders, sharing knowledge on product development and scalable platforms. This ecosystemic approach fuels a sustainable cycle of innovation and growth across Africa.
As agriculture is poised to anchor Africa’s next economic leap, digital solutions that deliver trust, transparency and access are critical. Cubeseed exemplifies how technology can dismantle structural inefficiencies, connect fragmented markets, and unlock the vast potential of rural economies.
FFA Explainer:
Escrow system: A financial arrangement where a third party holds and regulates payment of funds required for two parties involved in a given transaction. It provides security by releasing payments only when predetermined conditions are met, thus building trust in digital marketplaces.
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