Broadspectrum Limited, an Information Communication Technology (ICT) company, has been awarded the Best Agritech/Agridata Company of the Year award at the 2021 Agribusiness Excellence Awards. Broadspectrum Limited was awarded for its contribution toward supporting the agriculture sector with advanced technology to increase productivity and efficiency.
Leveraging its connectivity and digital services, Broadspectrum has built a data-gathering digital platform for the agriculture ecosystem across Ghana. This helps government with input subsidy management, monitoring and evaluating agric projects, planning and forecasting.
The fourth Ghana Agribusiness Excellence and Leadership Awards, which were themed ‘Sustainable Agriculture: A catalyst for food security and job creation’, sought to celebrate the achievements, agritech innovations and brilliance within the agribusiness environment. It also recognised individuals, agribusinesses and institutions which played significant roles in the sector’s growth and development.
Broadspectrum’s Group Chief Commercial Officer, Maxwell Dodd, expressed his excitement and pledged the company’s determination to assist the sector with their expertise. He also spoke about the quest of his outfit to leverage their communication and connectivity infrastructure to enable innovations in health, education and agriculture.
Mr. Dodd, who is also the Project Lead for E-Agric Ghana Project, cited his outfit’s ongoing farmer enumeration project in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture – which seeks to register the biometric data of the farmer, farm location and size, linking these to their National ID as part of efforts underway to provide the necessary data for monitoring and evaluating future subsidy programmes.
“The biometric farmer enumeration project powered by Broadspectrum Limited under the Ministry of Food & Agriculture is registering farmers across Ghana. Enumerators are trained to record biometric data, the type of crops cultivated, map farm location and farm size of farmers with digital tablets provided by Broadspectrum Limited,” he said.
Anthony Morrison, CEO of the Chamber of Agribusiness – organiser of the event, emphasised how important it is to identify and commend trailblazers in the agribusiness ecosystem. The award scheme, he said, was instituted based on leadership in relevantly identified areas and ability to be self-sustaining while having a positive impact on the livelihood of smallholder farmers.
In an interview, the Head of Marketing, Public Relations and Customer Experience at Broadspectrum, Ranstina-Lee Opare-Saforo, commended the Chamber for such an initiative and congratulated all the other award-winners for their contributions to the agriculture sector.
“It was a humbling experience, and we are deeply honoured to be recognised with this award. A lot of time, capital and human investments have gone into what we do, because we believe strongly that we can make our agriculture industry more productive and efficient. While there are challenges to be expected, recognitions like these give us confidence to face the tough times. We know now that there are others who believe in what we are doing, and that sense of solidarity means a great deal to us,” she said.
