After joining the SAFE program in 2005 at the Ahmadu Bello University in the Zaria City of Nigeria’s Kaduna State, Dr. Nuhu Saddiq selected seed multiplication for his Supervised Enterprise Project (SEP) assignment. The SEP is an action-oriented field research component of the SAFE program. Following up on the entrepreneurial skills gained from the SEP, he established a seed company that was certified by the National Seed Council, and now provides quality seeds to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the state governments of Kaduna, Zamfara, Adamawa and Kebbi States.

The company, which employs more than 40 workers, has distributed over 20,000 MT of seed over the last three years, with an average revenue of USD30,000 per year. It works through a network of over 200 contract farmers, who are trained to supply different categories of foundation, and certified seeds. Additionally, the company has since 2018 been training and mentoring new cohorts of SEP and university students under the SAA program on private extension service provision. 

Retrieved from SAA E-Newsletter, issued in Nov 2022 "Impacting Skills in Agriculture"