Greetings, and welcome to the Tingo Group 1st quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin the formal presentation, I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include forecasts, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment on what the future holds, they are not guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation.
Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Throughout today's discussion, we will attempt to present some important factors relating to our business that may affect our predictions. You should also review our most recent Form 10-Q filed today and Form 10-K for a more complete discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading Risk Factors. A press release detailing these results crossed the wires this morning at 7:00 A.M. Eastern Time and is available in the investor relations section of our company website, tingroup.com.
Your host today, Darren Mercer, Tingo Group Chief Executive Officer, Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods Founder and CEO, and Kevin Chen, Tingo Group Chief Financial Officer, will present results of operations for the quarter ended March 31st, 2023. At this time, I will turn the call over to Tingo Group Chief Executive Officer, Darren Mercer.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody. I am pleased to welcome you to today's first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. I could not be more excited about the future of Tingo Group and its rapidly expanding growing group of businesses. For those of you joining us for the first time, I would like to take a moment to introduce Tingo Group and recap on our remarkable story so far. Tingo Group is a diverse Fintech and AgriFintech group of companies with operations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The company significantly expanded and was somewhat transformed when we acquired 100% of Tingo Mobile Limited on November 30, 2022, and then acquired Tingo Foods PLC on February 7, 2023, before subsequently changing our name to Tingo Group, Inc. on February 27, 2023.
Tingo Group is now comprised of the following businesses: Tingo Mobile, which is a leading Fintech and AgriFintech business in Africa that operates through a device-as-a-service and a smartphone USSD platform model. Tingo Foods, which offtakes crops from Tingo Mobile's large customer base of farmers and processes those crops into finished products. Tingo DMCC, which operates a commodity trading platform and commodity export business from Dubai and deals in both raw agricultural commodities, including from our Tingo Mobile farmers and finished food products, including from Tingo Foods. Tingo Pay, which has developed and operates the Tingo Pay Super App and has a Pan-Africa partnership with Visa. The full version of Tingo Pay, which will be rolled out later this year, provides payment services, an e-wallet, and a range of value-added services to customers. Tingo Pay, in partnership with Visa, also offers a range of merchant services to businesses.
The company's Fintech verticals, which operate platforms that offer a range of insurance and financial service products and are currently focused on the Southeast Asia markets. Finally, our various businesses and their synergistic interlinking ecosystem creates a strong position from which we are confident that we can achieve significant further growth and expand internationally. The Tingo Group quarterly financial results reported in today's 10-Q filing, which are presented here today, include for the first time the revenues and earnings of Tingo Foods, which are consolidated from its date of acquisition on February 7, 2023. In other words, the income statements included within the 10-Q is comprised of the full quarter results of the consolidated company together with 2 months results of Tingo Foods.
At the close of the Tingo Mobile acquisition on November 30, 2022, we immediately became highly profitable and have continued to grow strongly since, including through the recent acquisition of Tingo Foods and as also evidenced by the announcements of a number of major trade deals and partnerships, including Tingo Mobile's recent exclusive agreement with the Prime Commodity Exchange, or PCX, and All Farmers Association of Nigeria, or AFAN, which is expected to lock in considerable produce supply for our Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC businesses. As well as a nationwide network of warehousing facilities for our farmers and significantly enhanced commodity trading opportunities. All of which goes to further strengthen our agri-ecosystem.
The 1st quarter of 2023 results highlights for the group, as shown on this slide, are representative of our strong financial performance since the completion of acquisition of Tingo Mobile on November 30th, 2022, and our subsequent acquisition of Tingo Foods. For the quarter ended March 31st, 2023, the company generated over $851 million in revenue, $387 million in gross profits, and $372 million in EBITDA, and nearly $263 million in income before tax. Our cash balance as of March 31st, 2023, which is reflected on our balance sheet as audited by Deloitte LLP, stood at just over $780 million. Our reason why at Tingo Group is very important to us.
Those of you that have listened to or read our presentations before will most likely already be aware of our mission statements. For those of you who are not familiar, our overarching mission at Tingo Group is to foster digital and financial inclusion through our Fintech platforms and to drive social and economic upliftment. In our AgriFintech businesses, our mission includes our commitment to make a significant difference in improving global food supply and tackling the world's food security crisis by delivering farmer empowerment, improved crop yields, a reduction in post-harvest losses, and better access to both foreign and domestic markets. At a regional level, we also aim to support Africa and its farmers to achieve sustainable food self-sufficiency, bringing an end to Africa's food insecurity and poverty. By way of a recap, we entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Tingo Mobile on May 10, 2022.
Following this, we immediately appointed an elite team of world-class advisors to undertake extensive due diligence and financial analysis. The team included Big Four accountants, Ernst & Young, the world's leading law firm, Dentons, and the number one M&A investment bank, Houlihan Lokey, and our long-standing New York legal counsel, Ellenoff Grossman & Schole. We announced on June 15th, 2022 that the due diligence exercise has been completed, and that the findings were positive with no material concerns. The original merger agreement was amended and restated in October 2022 to facilitate the expedited acquisition of 100% of Tingo Mobile, as well as an improvement in terms to the company's shareholders. The acquisition was subsequently completed on November 30th, 2022.
With the benefit of the companies and Tingo Mobile's collaboration, the fourth quarter of 2022 saw the beginning of the geographical expansion of Tingo Mobile with the opening of new offices in Ghana, Malawi, and Dubai. The fourth quarter also saw us launch the Tingo DMCC commodities trading platform and export business, and the soft launch of the Tingo Pay Super App in partnership with Visa. By January 2023, we had begun to pivot the company's insurance and Fintech verticals to better complement the Tingo businesses with the aim of leveraging its already established brands and large customer base. On February 7, 2023, we acquired the Tingo Foods and Beverage Processing business so as to further strengthen the Tingo seed-to-sale ecosystem.
On February 27, 2023, we changed our corporate name and ticker symbol to better reflect the importance of the Tingo brand to the business and provide improved clarity to our external stakeholders, including current and prospective partners, customers, and investors. Finally, our reporting of full year 2022 financial results on March 31, 2023, was followed by 2 material announcements in April. The first being Tingo Mobile's exclusive partnership agreement with PCX and AFAN. The second being the filing of our Deloitte audited full year 2022 financial statement and pro forma financial information for the recently acquired Tingo Foods. I would now like to turn the call over to Dozy Mmobuosi, the founder and CEO of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, to further discuss Tingo's operations. Dozy.
Thank you, Darren, and to everyone joining us today. By way of recap and update on the Tingo Mobile business that I founded over 20 years ago. We begin with the Tingo Mobile Business as a Service model and Nwassa Fintech platform, which we believe is the leading AgriFintech platform in Africa. Following the signing of our updated definitive measure agreement with MICT in October of 2022, we set about accelerating our growth strategy. In November and December 2022, we signed trade agreements with two major partners with the aim of quickly expanding Tingo Mobile's customer base from 9.3 million to an expected 30 million by the end of 2023. We signed the trade partnership with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, which included a commitment to enroll a minimum of 20 million new customers to Tingo Mobile.
We also launched in Ghana and signed a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Ashanti, which included a commitment to enroll a minimum of 2 million new customers to Tingo Mobile and the target to enroll more than 4 million new customers soon afterwards. We launched into Malawi and began to progress several trade partnerships there with the aim of establishing a base rollout in the future across East Africa, including into Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Looking further ahead, we plan to expand in the future into other parts of Africa as well as into Asia and other relevant markets in the world. Through our other businesses within the Tingo family, namely Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC, we aim to increase uptake and demand for produce from Tingo Mobile's farmers, thereby creating a virtual self-reinforcement cycle.
In April 2023, as part of the further strengthening of our ecosystem, Tingo Mobile entered into a tripartite agreement with PCX and AFAN, which I will discuss in more detail shortly. Lastly, as we currently look to expand the reach of our Nwassa marketplace platform, we are currently testing the forthcoming Nwassa web platform and Nwassa app, which we intend to launch around the middle of this year to complement the already successful USSD GSM transaction platform. Tingo Foods was brought into the group on February 7, 2023. This is a business that our team and I have been developing for some time outside of Tingo Mobile. We launched the business as a standalone company in September 2022, focusing on supplying a relatively small product range to several large distribution and wholesale businesses.
Tingo Foods creates significant demand and uptake for Tingo Mobile farmers, while at the same time creating supply for Tingo DMCC's commodity trading and export business. Within the first 4 months of trading to December 31, 2022, Tingo Foods generated more than $466.2 million of turnover. The first quarter of 2023 saw revenues grow to $577.2 million, generating an operating profit of $143.5 million. Tingo Foods is set to multiply capacity and revenue with a new state of the art $1.6 billion food processing facility in Delta State of Nigeria. Our joint venture partner is already at an advanced stage of completing work on the buildings, foundations and the installation of infrastructure, drainage and water supply and facility is on track to open by mid-2024.
We also recently partnered with Evtec Energy Plc to build a $150 million, 110 megawatt solar plant to power the facility set to achieve net zero carbon emissions and reduce energy costs. We believe Africa's farmers and agricultural sector will benefit from the significant expansion of the continent's own processing capabilities, increasing crop demand, reducing post-harvest losses, giving farmers higher prices and delivering financial upliftment. In December 2022, we launched Tingo DMCC, which is an agricultural commodity platform and export business in partnership with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, DMCC. As part of the Tingo ecosystem, Tingo DMCC creates significant uptake of new crops from Tingo Mobile's farmers and is also expected to be a major customer as it looks to export the finished food and beverage produce of Tingo Foods.
We have made significant progress during Q1 2023 on the aggregation of bulk volumes of produce for export from AFAN's members, with the first export orders due to be completed before the end of Q2 2023. Through the farmers of Nigeria, which are estimated at around 60 million, as well as those in Ghana, Malawi and certain other territories, we have access to several billion dollars per annum of agricultural produce for our export business. These export orders are set to dollarize and globalize Tingo Group, while at the same time giving Tingo Mobile's farmers and Tingo Foods direct access to international markets. On April 26, 2023, it was announced that Tingo Mobile had partnered with PCX and AFAN for the exclusive use of AFAN's existing network of 2,322 warehouses across Nigeria for a minimum term of 30 years.
This strategic partnership uniquely positions Tingo to monetize Nigeria's crop ecosystem across its population of 230 million and the global export market. Under the terms of the agreement, Tingo Mobile has the right of first refusal to purchase or trade any of this produce.Store in the AFAN warehouses, which it intends to use primarily to serve the Tingo Foods processing business and the Tingo DMCC commodity trading and export business. PCX has installed its leading edge e-Warehouse Receipt System in all the partnership warehouses, enabling crops and other produce to be commoditized and traded by Tingo from the date of delivery. Tingo Mobile is also to be granted a priority position on the PCX commodity trading platform, enabling Tingo DMCC to trade farming produce and other commodities on spot, futures, physical, and derivative basis.
AFAN, the umbrella body for Nigeria's farming sector, has committed to coordinate all its agricultural cooperatives and members to utilize the partnership's warehouses to handle their produce. In addition to which, the partnership has committed to targeted increase in the number of warehouses to 80,000 in the next two years. Tingo Mobile also has the right to sublet the warehouse space to pre-approved third parties such as e-commerce businesses and wholesale businesses. This partnership with AFAN and PCX is expected to considerably increase our offtake of crops and other produce from farmers, which we believe will help to satisfy the substantial future input requirements of our food processing and commodity trading and export business. Importantly, the agreement also further augments our seed-to-sale model, assisting us to achieve our objectives of reducing post-harvest losses and crop wastage, while also increasing food production levels and meaningfully improving food security.
As explained previously, Tingo Pay is a super app that offers a full range of value-added services and partnership with Visa. Such services include a digital Visa card, e-wallet payment services, marketplace e-commerce, insurance, and finance. As a full market B2C and B2B offering, the Tingo Pay super app and Visa partnership is helping us to diversify and expand Tingo Group into new sectors with the aim of making Tingo Pay and Tingo household names as widely recognized as Visa itself. To assist us in achieving market penetration, our Pan-Africa partnership with Visa includes their provision of marketing and customer acquisition support. SMEs in all business sectors plan to benefit from our new range of Tingo Visa merchant services and the TingoPay business portal. Our smallholder farmer customers will see significant additional advantages through the integration of Tingo Pay with our Nwassa Agri-Marketplace platform.
The Tingo Pay business portal and Tingo Visa merchant services enables subscriber, farmers, and businesses in all sectors to easily and securely accept payments and use it to make online transactions in their domestic or foreign currencies, as well as to manage the cards, set up repeat payments, and access transaction statements. A better version of our Tingo Pay app, which now includes the addition of several new value-added services, is currently at an advanced stage of testing with Visa ahead of a full-scale launch set for mid-2023. Through Tingo Mobile, Nwassa, Tingo Pay, Tingo Foods, and Tingo DMCC, we have created a full AgriFintech ecosystem. We communicate with and push services to our farmers through the smartphone handsets we supply to them.
The farmers can then use the embedded Nwassa USSD platform and the soon to be launched Nwassa and Tingo Pay apps to purchase inputs for their farming business, to purchase other services, to make payments, and to sell their produce. Tingo Foods is a valuable customer and source of offtake for Tingo Mobile's farmers, in relation to which it processes their raw crops into finished food and beverage products. Tingo DMCC can trade and export both the raw crops of Tingo Mobile's farmers and the finished food and beverage products of Tingo Foods, which it can sell to a global market where demand significantly outstrips supply. This already strong seed-to-sale ecosystem is now strengthened further by the recently signed deal between Tingo Mobile, PCX, and AFAN.
As this now gives us access to a substantial nationwide network of warehouse facilities, secures us a considerable increase in produce supply, and gives us enhanced commodity trading opportunities. All in all, the Tingo ecosystem creates a reinforcing loop of financial and digital inclusion, alongside an increase in food supply and a reduction in post-harvest losses, which in turn improves food security and reduce food poverty. Ultimately, all these factors deliver financial and social upliftment, not only to our farmers, but also to all our stakeholders.
Thank you, Dozy. Before I hand over to Kevin, I think it is important to also state that at the core of our values, we are highly committed to environmental, social, and governance factors. We foster digital and financial inclusion through our technology platforms, driving the social and economic upliftment of our customers. We meaningfully improve the global food supply and tackle the world's food security crisis by empowering the farmer, helping them increase crop yields, reduce post-harvest losses, gain from improved access to market, and benefit from fairer market prices. Our technology and platforms also deliver significant environmental benefits, reducing crop wastage, improving farming and food production efficiency, promoting sustainable farming techniques, and reducing freight miles. As part of our commitment towards the environment and social upliftment, we are focused on adopting a mature ESG framework underpinned and guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
I will now turn the call over to Tingo Group CFO, Kevin Chen, to discuss our first quarter 2023 financial results, as reported in this morning's 10-Q filing.
Thank you, Darren. I'm very pleased to present our financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2023. A full breakdown of our financial results is available in our regulatory filing and in the press release that crossed the wire earlier this morning. Before going into numbers, it is important to note the significant impact of the acquisition of Tingo Foods, which completed in February 2023, and has resulted in the consolidation of Tingo Foods' financial results into our own from the date of completion. In other words, the results of Tingo Group for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2023 include the results of Tingo Foods for approximately 2 months. Now, turning to some of the key figures.
The net revenues of Tingo Group for the first quarter ended March thirty-first of 2023 were $851.2 million, compared to $9.6 million for the first quarter ended March thirty-first of 2022, an increase of 8,801%, which was mainly attributed to consolidating a full quarter of the results of Tingo Mobile and consolidation of two months of the results of Tingo Foods. The company's gross profit for the first quarter, 2023 was $386.9 million, compared to gross profit of $1.3 million for the first quarter, 2022, which again was attributable to the additions of Tingo Mobile and the Tingo Foods acquisitions.
The operating profit of Tingo Group for the first quarter ended March thirty-first of 2023 was $260.7 million, up from a loss of $10.0 million for the first quarter ended March thirty-first, 2022. After adding back depreciation and amortization for the company's operating profit, EBITDA for the first quarter ended March thirty-first of 2023 amounted to $371.8 million, compared to an EBITDA loss of $9.1 million for the first quarter ended March thirty-first, 2022.
After taking corporate tax into account, which is charged at a rate of 30% on the taxable profits of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, the company's net income for the first quarter ended March thirty-first, 2023 amounted to $176.7 million, compared to a net loss of $8.7 million for the first quarter ended March thirty-first, 2022. Tingo Foods revenue for the approximate two-month period from its date of acquisition to March thirty-first of 2023, were $577.2 million, as compared to $466.2 million for the approximate four-month period from its inception to December thirty-first, 2022.
Tingo Foods operating profit for approximate 2-month period from its date of the acquisition to March 31, 2023, was $143.5 million, as compared to $50.7 million for the approximate 4-month period from its inception to December 31, 2022. The consolidated cash balances of Tingo Group had grown to $780.2 million at March 31, 2023, from $500.3 million at December 31, 2022. The first quarter 2023 revenues were made up of mobile handset leasing revenues of $113.7 million. Mobile call and data of $14.4 million. Nwassa platform revenues of $125.3 million. Tingo Foods revenues of $577.2 million. MICT insurance and financial services revenues of $20.6 million.
A summary of the income statement of Tingo Group for the 3 months ended March 2023 compared to March 2022 is provided on page 16 of the presentation. A reconciliation of GAAP operating income or loss to the non-GAAP EBITDA for the 3 months ended March 2023 compared to March 2022 is provided on page 17 of the presentation. A summary of the balance sheet highlights is provided on page 18 of the presentation. A summary of the income statement of Tingo Group for the 3 months ended March 2023 compared to March 2022 is provided on page 19 of the presentation. I will now hand the call back to Darren.
Thank you, Kevin. My board and I believe Tingo Group is in a very unique position, both as a company and as an attractive investment proposition. We are a fast growth and highly profitable Nasdaq-listed company, generating revenues of $851.2 million and net income before tax of $262.5 million for the three months ending March 31, 2023. We have a very strong balance sheet and are cash flow positive. Our cash balance at March 31, 2023 amounted to $780.2 million. We have a fast growth, high margin and sticky revenue model with low customer acquisition costs and low attrition. We have a full agri and food ecosystem from seed-to-sale, creating a virtuous circle for both us and our customers.
We are making a difference towards addressing the global food shortage and food security crisis. We are a benefactor of price inflation. Our Visa Tingo partnership and Tingo Pay Super App expands Tingo significantly into new B2C and B2B markets. We have proven proprietary fintech platforms which are replicable in new geographical markets and new sectors. We have a vast addressable global market. We believe we have a significant ESG impact, and that can grow considerably further in the future. Operator, my colleagues and I from Tingo are now ready to take questions from the participants. Thank you.
Our first question comes from Howard Halpern of Taglich Brothers. Howard asks, "Can you describe how your food processing subsidiary operates? Is it in a small plant, or if not, how many co-packing relationships do you have?
As of today, we use 2 third-party food processing plants which handle our processing requirements for the 5 products that we currently handle. It's also, Howard, worth remembering that our food processing business, Tingo Foods, was only launched 8 months ago. Since then, we've intentionally limited our product range to the current 5 products just to enable us to focus to establish key and strong foundations for the business and strengthen the infrastructure and capabilities that we have. You can see from the numbers today we're generating from these 5 products and also the growth that we've achieved in the 2 months to March 31st compared to the 4 months we had at the back end of last year, which I'm sure that we're impressive.
From this, I mean, you can get a feel for what we should be able to achieve as we expand our product range and as we gain access to more produce for processing. You know, once we open our new processing facility, which is state-of-the-art, it's much bigger than all of these. It's the biggest, you know, it's gonna be the biggest of its type in Africa, and that's gonna open in about a year's time. At the moment we do that, both our product range and processing capacity will multiply significantly. You know, even ahead of them, we are looking to add several new products to our offering, all of which satisfy, you know, a demand that's already pent up in the marketplace.
As we begin to deal in those new products, for example, you know, be it pastas or noodles, cocoa, coffee, tea, carbonated beverages, I can go on. You know, ahead, and as we do that ahead of opening our own facility, we expect to increase the number of third-party food processing partners that we work with, to increase, you know. A number of those we are talking to and already have lined up. You know, I mean, although it's possible for us to achieve very strong growth through the use of external processing companies, it really will be a huge step change when we open our new facility.
Not just because it will undoubtedly enable us to multiply our revenues and profitability, but because it will allow us to further deliver against our mission of feeding Africa, improving food security, and enabling Africa to become self-sufficient in food. It's also, I think I should point out, Howard, that even when our new facility comes online, you know, in 12 months' time or so, even though that's gonna increase our capacity, as I just said, it's going to multiply it several times. We already have Key indications of pent-up demand, be it through all the host of other African nations, be it through our partners at the DMCC in Dubai, that there is plenty of demand for that capacity. In fact, we might not even have the capacity to be able to meet that.
Which means the contribution from Tingo Foods and its support for our export drive is gonna be significant, particularly from the middle of next year onwards. You know, further validate the value we believe we deliver to Africa, you've got to understand that the finished food products we're now processing and supplying domestically are replacing very expensive supply that's historically been imported. As our, you know, Nwassa Tingo Mobile platforms continue to deliver much higher crop yields from our farmers. What this shows really is the underlying success of the Nwassa Tingo Mobile platforms. Because, you know, we are getting much higher crop yields from our farmers as a result of our platforms, because they're providing the microfinance, enabling the farmers to reinvest and increasing their capacity significantly.
They are enabling those farmers to get their produce to us in a timely basis through the cooperatives. We now have the warehousing capability to actually store all of that produce. As we're getting that food produce into our warehouses, and it's becoming available through Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC, you can see that we're making a real difference towards improving both domestic and world food supply.
Thank you, team. Another question from Howard Halpern at Taglich Brothers. Howard asked, "How does your recently announced PCX and AFAN warehouse deal impact both your commodity and food processing operations and long-term revenue potential?
Yeah, good question, Howard. Thank you. look, you've often heard me talk about the importance of the Tingo ecosystem. I think as we've already alluded to today in a previous answer, you know, the success in increasing crop yields and food production levels is enabling us for the first time to talk about fulfilling the significant domestic and export demand for food and beverage products and other agricultural commodities. It therefore has been a priority of ours to establish a very strong infrastructure and logistics capability, both for the procurement and supply side of the business as well as for the sell side. It's gotta be the bedrock at which we are gonna grow a very, very substantial business indeed. Our deal with PCX and AFAN is the very heart of this, and it delivers perfectly against this particular priority.
It gives us a really dominant position in warehousing and goods handling, covering the whole of Nigeria. You know, it's significantly increasing our capability and capacity to fulfill orders both domestically and internationally, be it for raw crops, finished food produce or beverage products. You know, and additionally to that, Howard, you know, our right of first refusal to purchase or trade any of the produce received into those warehouses, combined with the partnership's commitment to significantly increase the number of warehouses to 80,000, as you heard us say earlier, and AFAN's commitment to refer all of its cooperatives and farmers to use them, you know, it's very valuable to us, not only to significantly increase the supply into our export and commodity trading business, but also to significantly increase supply into our Tingo Foods processing business.
Yeah, look, we therefore expect that the deal's impact on both our export and processing businesses to be very, very significant indeed.
Thank you, team. Our next question is, given the number of warehouses that you have mentioned today rises to 80,000 over the next two years, can you put that into context how this positions you in the market and what competition you have? It seems to me that this would give you a very strong position, but how would this impact other logistics companies?
That's a very good question. We previously reported that we currently have a little over 2,300 warehouses in the network. And as I've just said in the previous answer that, you know, the partnership has committed to increase that number to around 80,000 over the next couple of years. To put this into context, DHL is reported to have the largest logistics company warehouse network in the United States with, I think the numbers I saw, about 417 warehouses, and the likes of Amazon and Walmart are reported to have around 1,100 and 200 respectively, in terms of distribution centers. It's therefore fair to say that our deal with PCX and AFAN and the expansion plans of the partnership gives us a very dominant position in Nigeria, with no real comparable competition.
I think also in addition, our ability to sublet surplus capacity on the partnership's warehouse network also creates a major opportunity for us to lease space to third parties, you know, including logistics companies, e-commerce, retailers and the likes. Indeed in itself should be an additional valuable source of profitable revenue.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, I note the very significant contribution that Tingo Foods is making to the group. Is it possible for you to comment on how its performance will be impacted by the new food processing facility?
Okay. Yeah. Perhaps the only point I haven't already touched upon in answering the previous questions is that by having our own state-of-the-art facility, we do expect to significantly be able to increase our margins. Our state-of-the-art machinery will enable us to process food and beverage products very efficiently with minimal wastage, while at the same time we'll be able to produce a wide range of products in huge volumes, I might add, that neither we nor other food processors in Africa have previously been able to deal with. To further validate the value we believe we're delivering to Africa, you have to understand that the finished food products we are processing and supplying domestically is replacing very expensive supply that's historically been imported.
As our Tingo Mobile and Nwassa platform continues to deliver much higher crop yields from our farmers and our microfinance enables farmers to reinvest into increasing their capacity, significantly more produce becomes available for Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC, as ultimately we can make a real difference towards improving both domestic and world food supply. I think it's also fair to, just to add into this particular question, is that you have to look at the infrastructure we now have in place as an organization. We are 12 rising to 30 million farmers by the end of this year. We have a very sophisticated and getting increasingly better logistics network in place to deliver their produce to us into our warehouses on a timely basis. We now have a very prominent and dominant position with those warehouses themselves.
All of this puts us in an unrivaled position, be it to support the Tingo Foods through food processing or getting produce to market for export.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "Is the focus of Tingo Foods on the domestic market or is it also intending to serve the export market?
Good question. As we stand today, whilst we're still in the early stages of operation, we are focused on serving what is a huge domestic market, you know, with Nigeria's more than 200, I think 220 million population. That being said, we are also gearing up our operations to increase capacity and commence export finished products in a not too distant future. Current product range is focused on staple foods for the domestic market, including rice milling and cooking oils. As we expand into the non-staple products such as tea, coffee, cocoa, and carbonated beverages, there is a much greater opportunity for us to move towards export.
I mean, it goes without saying that when our own $1.6 billion food processing facility comes online next year, it gives us both the breadth of product range and the production capacity to serve a number of markets. You know, we'll be able to serve all of Nigeria. We'll be able to serve Pan Africa, and we're very hopeful we'll be able to serve also demand from our export business internationally, through the DMCC.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "I note that there is no mention of Tingo's expansion into China. Given your experience in China, can I ask why not?
Yeah. I mean, I mentioned in the earnings call, I think at the full year results, that the board and management of Tingo really have a wealth or a significant number of opportunities that we should develop or expand the group. When we evaluate each of these opportunities in turn, the consideration we have has a number of factors, be it return on capital employed, be it a contribution to profits or strategic. I think that's what I said at the time. Clearly amongst those opportunities and having had a wealth of experience in Mainland China for the last 15 years or so, China is very much in full consideration. We are considering a number of ways in which we could utilize what could be a very sizable market for us.
The best returns it would bring our group and enable our group to successfully deliver the products. That can be anything from the export business through to a version of the Tingo model itself. I mean, I can tell you that many of my team over there right now are already in contact with the key partners, be it at local or provincial government level, as well as the kind of large logistics providers or large banks, insurance and other financial institutions we'll need to support us. Have been used many of the relationships that we have grown over the years. I think the team in turn will be in a position to be presenting their findings to the board in the not too distant future.
At this moment in time, the way it's looking, it could indeed be a very exciting opportunity for us. That's a decision the board will make at the appropriate time.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "Given the company's very strong cash position together with the positive cash flow nature of the business, can I ask, will the company consider paying a dividend to its shareholders? If so, will it be a one-off special dividend or an ongoing program?
Yeah, it's a very fair question. As you know, I can't give out any non-public information on this call. I think you'll remember from the full year results again that we announced just a few weeks ago that given the profitability of Tingo Group and the growth we're expecting to see this year, and I think we've just demonstrated in the first quarter, it makes sense that the payments of cash dividends to shareholders is something that the board should and in fact is considering.
In particular, you know, once our export business starts to make material contributions to the group, you know, and as a result of how the success is really dollarizing the revenues or dollarizing a significant part of group revenues, I think we feel as a board that this would be the most appropriate and prudent time to commence with a dividend program. If we achieve our plans and timelines, and I think as the first quarter has demonstrated, I think we're running ahead of schedule. And while I can't speak for the members of my board, my personal preference would be towards the payment of quarterly dividends that takes into account, you know, the combination of a profit, some free cash flow, and the reinvestment we need to make into our ambitious long-term growth plans.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "Can you provide any update on the market manipulation and short-selling investigations?
Yeah. As you know, we undertook a very detailed investigation through our lawyers and special advisors. I think it's fair to say that's progressing very well. The lawyers and their team of experts are continuing to examine data and collate the evidence. I think as the exercise advances, we've begun to receive indications of a possible quantum of a damages claim. While it's premature to give any specific details, I think if we were to proceed with any such claims, they're likely to be very substantial and material indeed.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "You previously stated there was a significant share price disconnect when the share price was sub $1. Now that the share price is around $3, do you still feel a disconnect exists? If so, what is being done to address it?
Yeah, good question. Well, naturally, with our share price now sort of more than three times the level it was when we first mentioned this disconnect, you know, the level of disconnect is technically lower than it was from that point in time. Look what we've done since. You know, we've reported very significant increase in earnings. We've also announced several material developments, all of which have materially increased shareholder value. We've just had record Q1 numbers. When you take all of this into account, you know, I still believe that the disconnect itself is very, very significant, especially when you look at other Nasdaq-listed companies being valued on forward earnings multiples, which are many, many times what we're being valued on.
You know, as the results have demonstrated today, we're growing impressively, and with the imminent completion of our first export deals and new food processing plant coming online next year, you know, bearing in mind the level of profitability and cash we're generating, I think it should be clear for all to see that the disconnect is still very, very significant indeed. To answer the part of your question, what are we doing about it? I think my answer to the previous question spoke about the possibility, you know, of making quarterly dividend payments. You know, the launch of a program of regular dividends, we believe, will be a very effective way of addressing our disconnect.
You know, I should also point out in addition that, you know, there are other measures too available to us, and everything is being assessed on a very live basis.
Thank you, team. The possible acquisition of Sheffield United Football Club by Dozy Mmobuosi continues to attract press coverage in the U.K. While I'm not particularly interested in the deal itself, I am keen to know if the English Football League approved Dozy under the Owners and Directors Tests, which, as I understand it, has very stringent criteria. Yeah, fair question. Look, we can't really comment on the transaction itself, and this isn't the right audience, this is not the right setting in which to do so. I think what we can confirm, this is important, that the English Football League informed Dozy and his advisors in April that he had been approved under their Owners and Directors Tests.
Thank you, team. Our next question asks, "I was very reassured when the company took the step of appointing Big Four and global accounting firm Deloitte as its auditor. Can you explain a little about the audit process and whether Deloitte physically visited the Tingo business in Nigeria?
That's a very good question, and I'm glad someone's asked it. I think as mentioned previously, you know, we felt it was very important to appoint a leading audit firm with a global reach you know, to undertake the audit. In our opinion, I think Deloitte is the number 1 audit firm, certainly in Africa and probably on a worldwide basis. In terms of the work they did, not only did Deloitte involve their STC audit teams from both Israel and the U.S., United States of America, in the audit, but they also sent teams of auditors to Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods in Africa, as well as to the regional head offices we have in China and Hong Kong.
Just to add to this, you know, because the full year of 2022 audit was their first engagement for Tingo Group, Deloitte undertook a much more detailed degree of audit testing in accordance with the PCAOB guidelines. Let's not forget, you know, in addition to the separate audits performed by Deloitte on Tingo Group and Tingo Foods now, we also engaged Grant Thornton to undertake a Sarbanes-Oxley audit and review, and they themselves also sent audit teams to Tingo Mobile in Nigeria, as well as to our regional head offices also in China and Hong Kong. As you can see from our filings, you know, at no point, in no time have there ever been any evidence of material weaknesses or adverse findings in those audits.
The next question asks, "When can we expect your export business to commence, and how large do you expect its contribution to group revenues to be?
I think the short answer is very soon and very, very large. To give perhaps more granularity around it, I think we indicated in our presentation today that, you know, as I've just said, we expect the export business to start very imminently. You know, as we outlined today, you know, keep going back to this, you know, we have 12 million farmers whose produce we now have at hand. We have the warehousing capacity and capability for large volumes of storage that nobody else in Nigeria has. That's only gonna increase as the number of farmers increase from those 12 million to hopefully 30 million by year-end. I haven't even spoken today about the produce we're gonna get from the Kingdom of Ashanti, where we believe we're gonna get between 2 and 4 million farmers on our platform.
I haven't spoken about in Malawi itself, it used to be the food basket of Africa, 15 years ago. That how our platform is there to help get it back to that level of status, which in turn will provide also a great deal of produce for export. The volume of produce that we're getting and that we have plans for, and that we now have the logistical infrastructure in to support, is very significant indeed. I'm not gonna put a monetary amount on that. You can see today from the contribution of Tingo Foods from just 5 products for internal demand in Nigeria itself. We have spoken, you know, in previous answers how that's gonna increase to tea and cocoa and coffee and many other products, even carbonated drinks. The opportunity for us from a demand side for export of produce today seems fairly unlimited.
Our ability to satisfy that has only been helped with the contract around PCX and AFAN for warehousing. Has only been helped by the fact that through AFAN we're gonna increase our number of farmers from 12 to 30 million. Has only been helped by our technological platform, is helping get increased crop yields, much more produce that goes through food security thresholds and provides even more produce to either be processed internally for internal consumption or for export. The market is very, very significant indeed, and we believe that will only grow as we really start penetrating Ghana and Malawi and other markets come on stream.
Thank you, team. I'm still confused about how your Nwassa marketplace works, bearing in mind that neither the Nwassa website or Nwassa app seems to be fully functional. Please can you explain?
Yeah. I think this is a question we had at the full year results back at the end of March, we explained, look, in that call that, you know, and perhaps as best as a recap. Our Nwassa marketplace has operated via a USSD platform since it was launched in 2020. For those of you who aren't aware of that, who may be new to the company and didn't hear what we said back in March, USSD stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data. It's a global system for mobile communication protocol, it's used to send text messages to execute certain transactions.
The Nwassa USSD platform allows Tingo customers to execute the transactions across the Nwassa marketplace, not only in relation to the sale of the produce or the purchase of farming inputs, but also to purchase airtime, pay utility bills, purchase mobile phone insurance and of course, to arrange finance. As part of our planned technological development, we today are developing the Nwassa website and the Nwassa app, which are not yet operational, and they are still in development and still in testing. Once that development and testing has been completed, they'll be launched to operate alongside the existing Nwassa USSD platform. In terms of timing, we're aiming to perhaps achieve a launch of the website and the app during the early part of Q3 of 2023.
Thank you, team. I noticed that a beta version of Tingo Pay was soft launched in February of this year. When is the full version expected to be launched?
Yeah. Tingo Pay is at a very advanced stage of testing by both our own technology development teams and the teams of Visa themselves. During the testing phase, we've also added a number of new functions and products that we think, I certainly believe, enhance both the user experience and Tingo Pay's revenue generation capabilities. As things stand today, we're aiming for a launch, a launch window really between the end of Q2 and the early part of Q3 of 2023.
Thank you, team. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mercer for his closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. I'd like to thank each of you for joining our earnings conference call today in really what has been a momentous quarter for the company. I do look forward to continuing to update you all on our ongoing progress and growth. If, however, we were unable to answer any of your questions today, please reach out to our IR firm, MZ Group, who will be more than happy to assist. Thank you so much.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.