Spotlight on Samuel Nderitu Wachieni: Crowdfunding micro-investments in agriculture to empower African farmers
Samuel developed the crowd-funding platform Crowd Farm Africa LTD. (CFAL), which is designed to attract investments that would empower African farmers and unleash the continent’s agricultural potential. Crowd Farm Africa uses technology to transform African agriculture, promoting shareholding farming and addressing value chain gaps.
As a Kumvana fellow, Samuel met with a crowdfunding expert from Calgary who helped him think about a sustainable model for financing entrepreneurs through a platform that processes many micro-investments with transaction fees as CFAL scales. CFAL’s online platform allows individuals to jointly invest in large commercial farming projects, which are efficiently and professionally managed with the ultimate aim of taking advantage of economies of scale. The team revisited their business model and realized that farmers don’t just face challenges due to a lack of capital. They also face a lack of agronomic support, marketing expertise and other skills.
Kenya is just the beginning for CFAL. As the company intends to build on its success to scale up and include the entire African continent, they are continuing to reevaluate their business model. The Kumvana program helped Samuel and CFAL begin to think globally about the impact they want to have and how to modify their model in order for the organization to improve international value chains in Africa.
