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Interview with Yemisi Iranloye
FOUNDER and CEO, PSALTRY INTERNATIONAL
Lives in: Nigeria
Cassava is a root crop that resembles a large sweet potato. Nigeria produces and consumes more of it than any other country. Most often, it is processed into garri or fufu, which are eaten as thick, dough-like accompaniments used to scoop up traditional soups and stews.
However, cassava also has major industrial applications. The roots can be processed into starch, ethanol, glucose syrup and flour. Among its many uses, food companies rely on the starch as a binder to hold ingredients together, and it is also a key component in corrugated cardboard boxes. Additionally, because the crop is naturally gluten-free, cassava flour serves as an alternative to wheat flour, creating opportunities in the health and wellness market.
Nigerian entrepreneur Yemisi Iranloye recognised this industrial potential. At 40, she quit formal employment to focus full-time on her cassava processing venture, Psaltry International. Her very first client for the starch was food giant Nestlé in Nigeria.
Jaco Maritz, editor-in-chief of How we made it in Africa, spoke to Iranloye about how she built her business.
Topics discussed during the interview include:
- Cassava’s industrial potential
- Transitioning from employment to entrepreneurship
- Key entrepreneurship lessons learned
- Nigeria’s untapped agribusiness opportunities
- The importance of delayed gratification
Watch the full interview below:
Our new book, How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit, is available here.
Interview summary
Yemisi Iranloye earned a food biochemistry degree from the Federal University of Technology Minna in 1997. She completed her master’s in biochemistry and nutrition at the University of Ibadan in 2000.
A year later, she joined Ekha Agro Processing in Lagos, a company that converted cassava into glucose syrup.
In 2005, while still working at Ekha Agro, she bought her first piece of land in Oyo State. Unable to afford the full price upfront, she paid for the property in instalments over three years.
Farming began as a weekend hobby. Her initial goal was stem multiplication: growing better varieties of cassava. She shared these superior stems with neighbouring small-scale farmers to help increase their crop yields.
Going all in
In 2011, at the age of 40, Iranloye quit her job to run her cassava venture full-time. She built a small house on the farm, moved there with a handful of staff, and began sourcing cassava from an initial group of 17 small-scale farmers.
She secured a loan to fund her first factory. It was a 20-tonne-per-day cassava starch facility, built with equipment imported from China.
Nigeria already had some cassava starch processors. Iranloye’s edge was her location. Cassava spoils rapidly after harvest. By building her factory directly next to small-scale farmers, she processed the crop faster and achieved a much higher quality.
In 2013, Nestlé took samples of the initial batch of cassava starch and became Psaltry’s first customer. From there, other clients like Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, and Promasidor also came on board.
A second factory followed in 2015. With it, the company began producing cassava flour.
Next came a sorbitol plant in 2022. Sorbitol is a natural sweetener used in toothpaste and other oral care products. Familiar with Psaltry’s consistent starch output, Unilever approached the company to produce sorbitol. According to Iranloye, most manufacturers previously imported sorbitol from Asia.
Over the years, Psaltry has expanded its supplier base to include 16,000 small-scale farmers.
Early challenges
Psaltry’s early challenges stemmed directly from the site’s location. “The factory was in the middle of nowhere,” Iranloye says.
Lacking basic infrastructure, the company had to construct its own access road. Electricity was non-existent in the rural area, forcing Psaltry to bring in its own generators. Later, the company was able to obtain electricity from the national grid.
Water was another problem. The only water source was a small stream that disappeared during the dry months. To cope with the shortage, the company built boreholes – first for the community in 2011, and then for the factory itself.
Growing competition
When Iranloye began producing cassava starch, there were few competitors. However, today, she notes there are at least 20 other manufacturers in Nigeria.
Alongside this increased supply, demand for locally produced cassava ingredients has also surged. “Especially with the forex issues Nigeria went through in the last five years, more companies are seeing the reason why they should buy local,” the CEO says, referencing the naira’s recent depreciation.
Other promising crops
Beyond cassava, Iranloye sees major business opportunities in sweet potatoes and coconuts.
Sweet potatoes, she says, have a high starch content and are naturally gluten-free, making them ideal for industrial applications.
Coconuts are another promising crop. Aside from providing high-quality cooking oil, almost every part of the coconut has commercial value. “There’s practically no part of coconuts that cannot give money,” Iranloye explains.
Lessons learned
Looking back on her entrepreneurship journey, Iranloye says passion is a requirement. “I don’t know if anyone can survive in the agri space without having a passion for it … Because that’s what helps you when things are not going well.”
She also stresses the importance of deferred gratification. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t take too much money from a company before it matures, nor should they treat business revenue as personal income. “You are separate from the business; you are a totally different entity from the business,” Iranloye says. “If you ever want to see the business of your dream, then you must defer gratification today so that the business grows into the business of your dream.”
Persistence is equally key. “Even if you don’t know what you are doing, just keep at it,” Iranloye says. She notes that when she started, she didn’t have a clear idea of what the business would be, but as she went along, things started to reveal themselves.
Facts Only
Yemisi Iranloye founded Psaltry International, a cassava processing company in Nigeria.
She holds a food biochemistry degree from the Federal University of Technology Minna (1997) and a master’s in biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Ibadan (2000).
In 2001, she joined Ekha Agro Processing, a company converting cassava into glucose syrup.
In 2005, she purchased land in Oyo State, paying in installments over three years.
She began cassava farming as a weekend hobby, focusing on stem multiplication to improve crop yields for local farmers.
In 2011, at age 40, she quit her job to run her cassava venture full-time.
She built a 20-tonne-per-day cassava starch factory in Oyo State, using equipment imported from China.
Nestlé became Psaltry’s first customer in 2013, followed by Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, and Promasidor.
A second factory was established in 2015 to produce cassava flour.
In 2022, Psaltry launched a sorbitol plant, supplying Unilever for oral care products.
Psaltry now sources cassava from 16,000 small-scale farmers.
Early challenges included lack of infrastructure: no roads, electricity, or reliable water sources.
The company built its own access road, installed generators, and drilled boreholes for water.
Nigeria’s cassava starch processing sector now has at least 20 competitors.
Iranloye identifies sweet potatoes and coconuts as other high-potential crops for industrial applications.
Executive Summary
Yemisi Iranloye, founder and CEO of Psaltry International, transformed Nigeria’s cassava industry by leveraging its industrial potential beyond traditional food uses. After earning degrees in food biochemistry and nutrition, she worked at Ekha Agro Processing before purchasing land in Oyo State in 2005 to start cassava farming as a side project. By 2011, she left formal employment to focus full-time on her venture, building a cassava starch factory adjacent to small-scale farmers to ensure fresh processing and high-quality output. Her first major client was Nestlé, followed by Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, and Promasidor. Psaltry expanded to include cassava flour and later a sorbitol plant, sourcing from 16,000 small-scale farmers. Challenges included infrastructure gaps—lack of roads, electricity, and water—which the company addressed by building its own solutions. Iranloye emphasizes passion, deferred gratification, and persistence as key to entrepreneurial success in agribusiness. She also highlights untapped opportunities in sweet potatoes and coconuts, noting their industrial and commercial potential.
The narrative underscores the broader trend of localizing supply chains in Nigeria, driven by currency devaluation and import substitution policies. While competition in cassava processing has grown, demand for locally sourced ingredients has also increased, reflecting economic and logistical shifts in the country.
Full Take
**Steelman:** Yemisi Iranloye’s story is a compelling example of how localized, value-added processing can transform agricultural commodities into industrial opportunities. Her success hinges on strategic location, persistence, and adapting to infrastructure gaps—turning constraints into competitive advantages. The narrative also highlights the broader economic shift in Nigeria toward import substitution, driven by currency devaluation and supply chain disruptions. By focusing on cassava’s industrial applications (starch, flour, sorbitol), Psaltry International demonstrates how agribusiness can scale beyond subsistence farming to meet corporate demand.
**Pattern Scan:** The article avoids overt manipulation, but it leans into a subtle "underdog entrepreneur" trope, which can romanticize the challenges of agribusiness while downplaying systemic barriers (e.g., lack of rural infrastructure, access to capital). The emphasis on "passion" and "delayed gratification" risks framing success as purely individual, potentially obscuring structural inequalities in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. That said, the piece provides concrete details about Psaltry’s operations, avoiding exaggeration or emotional appeals.
**Root Cause:** The narrative reflects a neoliberal development paradigm—entrepreneurs as engines of growth, filling gaps left by state failure. It assumes that private enterprise, not public investment, is the primary solution to Nigeria’s agricultural underdevelopment. This echoes historical patterns of export-oriented cash crop economies, now repackaged as "agribusiness innovation."
**Implications:** For human agency, Iranloye’s story is empowering—proof that determined individuals can build scalable businesses in challenging environments. However, the costs are borne disproportionately by small-scale farmers (e.g., reliance on Psaltry as a sole buyer) and rural communities (e.g., infrastructure built by private firms, not the state). Second-order consequences include potential market saturation as more processors enter the space, which could squeeze margins for farmers and smaller players.
**Bridge Questions:**
1. How might Psaltry’s model be replicated—or fail—in regions without Nigeria’s cassava abundance?
2. What role should government play in de-risking agribusiness (e.g., rural electrification, research subsidies) versus leaving it to private actors?
3. If cassava processing becomes highly competitive, will smallholder farmers benefit, or will consolidation favor large processors?
**Counterstrike Scan:** A bad actor pushing this narrative might frame it as a "self-made success" myth to justify reduced public investment in agriculture, arguing that "if she can do it, anyone can." The actual content doesn’t match this pattern—it acknowledges infrastructure challenges and the need for systemic solutions (e.g., boreholes for the community). The focus remains on practical lessons, not ideological messaging.
Patterns detected: none