Sahel Agriculture was founded by Richard Ferguson and Robert Coleman.

Richard Ferguson

His career began in 1989 with the British Linen Bank, an Edinburgh-based investment bank. In 1993 he relocated to Hong Kong where he became the first European to work for a Chinese investment bank. He spent nine years in Asia working as an analyst covering mostly the telecoms, media and technology sectors for Shanghai International, Schroders and Nomura. After a four-year spell in Latin America and Paris, Richard re-located to London as a founder member of Nomura's new emerging markets group. During this period he formed an agriculture research function for the bank. After a spell at Moscow-based Renaissance Capital, Richard established Ferguson Cardo, an agribusiness consultancy. He has worked on many agribusiness fundraisings in Latin America (Libero Holdings), Africa (Feronia, Zambeef) and the CIS (Black Earth Farming, RusAgro, PhosAgro). In addition he worked on multiple capital raisings in Asia from Chinese B-shares to Korean telecoms operators. Between 2012-2013, he was a director, and latterly managing director, of MASDAR Farming, an emerging markets agriculture operator. He has also provided independent strategic advice to various companies and organisations including Black Earth Farming in Russia, Feronia in the DRC, Agrokultura in Ukraine, Amorim SA in Portugal, Asianomics in Hong Kong, the Centre for Agriculture & Biosciences International and PwC LLP in the UK. For three years he was an investment advisor to Washington DC-based Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI) which seeks to diversify several African economies from their dependence on tobacco exports.

Richard is the author of "African agriculture: This other Eden", "A revolution of sorts", "From field to laptop: the changing face of soft commodities trading" , ”Water on oil” and "China's grain drain" and "The future is another country: Brexit, CAP and the future of British agriculture". He also wrote the agriculture chapter of “The Fastest Billion” a book on Africa’s economic prospects. Richard sat on the Royal African Society's Africa-UK working group on Food Security. His work has been published by many think tanks and policy institutes including Bright Blue, The Bruges Group, Scottish Global Forum and MwPATA in Malawi. He has written for various publications including the Financial Times, Standpoint Magazine, The Moscow Times, the SCMP, the Kyiv Post, Cable Magazine, AgFunder and Latin American Investor on a range of subjects including agriculture, urbanism, development, currencies, trade, technology and politics. He has also contributed widely to television and radio networks including BBC World, CNN, CNBC, Reuters and Bloomberg TV. He holds degrees from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and L'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France’s second oldest grande école.

Robert Coleman

Robert Coleman was born into a farming family in Zimbabwe. He has worked in a managerial and practical capacity in agriculture from an early age. He gained a Higher Diploma in Agriculture from Gwebi Agricultural College, Zimbabwe in 1979. In his early career he managed a range of agricultural enterprises across Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia. His experience includes seeds, grains, oilseeds, vegetables, fruit, livestock, lucerne, crop trials, cool chains, processing, exports and staff training. In 1996 he took his skills to Eastern Europe and began to rehabilitate distressed agricultural assets in Romania and Russia. In his 14 years in Eastern Europe, this culminated in the management of 85,000 hectares of assets for Black Earth Farming, a Russian farming company which was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2007.

In 2010 Robert returned to Africa and rehabilitated four derelict farms totalling 10,000 hectares in Zambia for international investors. In 2012, he joined Olam International, a Singapore trading house, as Head of Agriculture, Africa and established two rice farms totalling 10,000 hectares in Nigeria’s Nasawara State. He also investigated potential opportunities for the company in Mozambique and Tanzania. In 2014, Robert joined Dangote Industries as Head of Rice Farming where he was responsible for the development of greenfield operations across five Nigerian states, a position he held until 2021. In 2018 he co-founded Sahel Agriculture with Richard Ferguson.

Estiaan Botma. Finance Manager. South African accountant and project manager. Responsible for financial management, reporting and ERP systems at Sahel.

Cherie-Anne Ramphal. Assistant Finance Manager and book-keeper.

Sue Jameson. Administration assistant

Nigeria team

Pieter Botma. South African. Project manager and team leader.

Pieter Grobler. Responsible for land development at Dangote Rice in Nigeria 2014-2021. Previously responsible for the rollout of 10,000 ha rice operation for Olam International. Previous experience in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa. Expertise covers planning, topographic analysis, LIDAR surveys, irrigation design, cost management and civil engineering.

Vel Gnanavel. Senior agronomist and technical manager. Has extensive rice and lucerne experience with Tilda Uganda where he conducted on and off-farm trials to standardise rice packages, developed out-grower programmes, ran a technical team and provided training programmes.

Olamide Olaomi. Farm Manager.

Boluwaduro Ajayi. Finance Manager for Kaduna Agro Management, Sahel’s Nigerian business.

Ethiopia team

Peter Whittle. Zimbabwean engineer and mechanic. Background in management, maintenance, and operating large fleets of agricultural machinery and capital equipment. Responsible for all capital assets and workshop management in Sahel Agriculture’s World Bank/IFC project in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia.

Henry Lombard. South African farmer and engineer. Responsible for training, ESG programmes and regenerative agriculture across Sahel’s projects.

Eric Onyenemen. Nigerian agronomist responsible for training in agronomy and conservation agriculture. Experienced in managing smallholder programmes in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo.

Charles Municua. Zimbabwean farmer and former policeman. Experience in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and the UK. Responsible for smallholder management, training and security.

Senegal team

Martin Oosthuizen. South African farmer and chief operations manager. Extensive experience working in Russia, DRC, Zambia, Nigeria, Romania, Botswana and South Africa. Previously manager of World Bank/IFC project for Sahel Agriculture in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia.

Other key staff.

Evans Joseph. Senior rice manager. Responsible for management of 14,000 smallholders, 32,000 ha rice farms, six mills, 2,500 h of centre pivot/flood irrigation seed farm at Dangote. Previously responsible for rollout of 10,000 ha venture with Olam International in Nasawara State, Nigeria. Previous experience includes running smallholder rice programmes in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Dipo Olapeju. Business analyst with extensive experience in investment appraisal, cost-benefit analysis, comparative analysis, project evaluation. Geologist previously with Schlumberger and currently working for the Dangote Oil Refining Company in Nigeria.

Jacob De Jager. General manager for 11,000 ha soybean, maize, sorghum, cassava and rice operation in Nigeria since 2008. Previously, 23 years of experience running own grain and livestock farm in South Africa.

Steven van Zuydam. Specialist in mechanisation, generators, equipment maintenance, silo construction and grain storage. Background in West African palm oil plantations, SA poultry and Middle East storage.