How This Entrepreneur Turned Nigeria’s Cassava Into a Multi-Million Naira Business

Many people see cassava as a basic food crop used for garri, fufu, and other local meals. Yemisi Iranloye saw something bigger. She saw a raw material that could power industries, replace imports, create jobs, and build a major Nigerian company.

Today, she is the founder and CEO of Psaltry International, one of Nigeria’s leading cassava processing businesses. Her story is a lesson in vision, patience, and execution.

Iranloye saw Opportunity Where Others Saw Tradition

Nigeria is the world’s largest producer and consumer of cassava. Yet for years, much of its value remained in food consumption. Cassava can do far more than feed households.

It can be processed into starch, flour, glucose syrup, ethanol, and sorbitol. These products are used in food production, pharmaceuticals, packaging, toothpaste, and manufacturing.

Iranloye understood this gap early. Instead of focusing only on farming cassava, she focused on processing it into industrial products companies needed every day.

That decision changed everything.

Her background and how it started

Iranloye studied food biochemistry at the Federal University of Technology Minna and graduated in 1997. She later earned a master’s degree in biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Ibadan in 2000.

She then joined Ekha Agro Processing in Lagos, where she gained practical experience in turning cassava into glucose syrup.

That experience gave her industry knowledge before she launched her own venture.

In 2005, while still employed, she bought land in Oyo State. She could not pay in full, so she purchased it gradually over three years.

This is one of the most powerful parts of her story. She did not wait for perfect conditions. She started with what she had and built slowly.

The farm began as a weekend project. She focused on stem multiplication, helping farmers access better cassava varieties that could improve yields.

What started as a side project later became the foundation of a manufacturing business.

What Iranloye did differently

In 2011, at age 40, Iranloye made a bold move. She left paid employment and committed fully to her cassava business.

She moved to the farm with a small team and started sourcing cassava from just 17 small-scale farmers.

Soon after, she secured financing and built her first starch factory with a capacity of 20 tonnes per day.

That was the turning point.

Cassava spoils quickly after harvest. Many processors lose quality because transport takes too long.

Iranloye solved this by locating her factory close to farmers. This meant faster processing, fresher raw materials, and better product quality.

Instead of competing only on price, she competed on efficiency and quality. That strategy opened doors.

How she landed major clients and expanded

In 2013, Nestlé tested Psaltry’s cassava starch and became its first major customer.

That early credibility helped attract other top brands, including Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, and Promasidor.

Once large companies trust your quality, growth becomes easier. The company later added cassava flour production in 2015.

In 2022, it launched a sorbitol plant after Unilever approached the company. Sorbitol is used in toothpaste and oral care products and had largely been imported from Asia.

Psaltry’s farmer network has grown from 17 suppliers to around 16,000 small-scale farmers. That means thousands of rural livelihoods connected to one processing company. It also shows how agribusiness can create wealth far beyond the founder.

The business was built in a rural area with poor infrastructure. There were no proper roads. Electricity was limited. Water supply was weak.

The company had to build roads, use generators, and drill boreholes. Many entrepreneurs quit when systems fail. Iranloye built around the problems.

What to learn from Iranloye

Iranloye says passion matters in agriculture because difficult seasons will come. She also believes in delayed gratification. Founders should not treat business money as personal money too early.

Reinvest first. Grow first. Enjoy later. She also values persistence. You may not know everything at the start, but clarity often comes while moving.

Yemisi Iranloye did not build a business from hype. She built it from a real Nigerian crop, real local supply chains, and real industrial demand.

She proved Nigeria does not need to export raw potential and import finished value. Sometimes the next big business is already growing in the soil.