Adia Sowho has been appointed as new Interim CEO of Thrive Agric as Uka Eje stepped down, midst several allegations from its subscribers about its defaulting of payments.
Eje, who founded the agro-crowdfunding platform with Ayodeji Arikawe in 2017, will now become its chief operating officer (COO).
An Important Note from Uka Eje to our Dear Thrive Agric Subscribers and Stakeholders. 💚💚 pic.twitter.com/Uv7KnEwmpP
— ThriveAgric (@thriveagric) October 8, 2020
Brief profile of Adia Sowho
Before now, she was the VP Growth at Migos, formerly Mines.io. a cloud-based platform that enables companies to offer credit to their customers, augmenting traditional bank and payment card infrastructure. She has worked as a consultant for Deloitte Consulting and director, Digitial Business for Etisalat Nigeria becomes the startup’s interim CEO.
She moved into the startup scene in 2018 when she became the Managing Director, Nigeria, and VP, Growth of fintech startup, Migo before leaving in May 2020.
As the interim CEO, she’ll guide the company through “a turnaround exercise so that we survive the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the business, according to a Twitter post by Eje.
He also said the company has appointed a chief financial officer (CFO) who comes with significant experience in finance but remains unidentified yet. Also, the company got a new head of Risk Management and Compliance.
Dear Thrive Agric subscribers and partners:
By now, you may be aware that payouts for some farm subscriptions are delayed. This is an unfortunate outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent restrictions on physical access to farms and farming markets.
— ThriveAgric (@thriveagric) October 2, 2020
While Eje will no longer run the company’s day-to-day operations, he is said to learn under Sowho for now.
“I sincerely express my apologies to all Thrive Agric subscribers, partners, and investors for the lapses in communication in the past months. We are committing to maintaining effective communication on the state of things with Thrive Agric to all stakeholders in order to regain confidence as we ensure all subscribers get paid fully.
“This delay in payouts is not what we intended in our mission to create a food-secure Nigeria. We hope for your continued patience as we continue to engage with you in the next few days as we roll out the changes to get us back on track.”
