Francescah Munyi is an entrepreneur from Kenya and she is the Co-founder & CEO of KOFAR Kenya Ltd, an enterprise that provides an organic and affordable processed compost which rectifies soils, increasing production of quality food per unit area for the small and large scale farmers, who have either misused, over-used or abused their soils in Kenya.
“If we increase crop yields for the farmers, the cost of production reduces and so their profitability will increase.” Francescah explained. “In doing so, farmers earn more from their yields and are able to employ workers, improving their living standards.”
Francescah’s educational background mainly focused on Business Management, which later made her join the finance sector where she worked for 10 years. After founding KOFAR in 2016, she decided to enroll in the Global MBA in Social Entrepreneurship at the Tangaza University College in partnership with E4Impact and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
“Thanks to the support and supervision KOFAR Kenya Ltd got through the MBA program, we managed to have our products sold to over 2,000 farmers and approved for soil amendment by the Kenyan government”. Francescah stated after attending the 6th edition of the MBA in Nairobi.
“Our farmers earn more from the yields and are able to employ workers,
improving their living standards.”
1.How was your Business Idea born?
I grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kenya on a small coffee farm. My parents managed to pay college fees for me and my 4 siblings with the earnings coming from coffee. But when in 2009 my mother asked for support within the farm, I was keen to ask her why the coffee income couldn’t be used anymore, since the 5 of us could afford education thanks to it. She said that the earnings reduced since the yields went down for several years then. I got curious to find out what got the yields to reduce and why soil degradation became the biggest threat to all crops, including coffee. I looked for a way of breaking up the hardpan, making the nutrients available to the crops and increasing the yields.
2.How can your business improve the life of the beneficiaries of your activities?
When we increase crop yields for the farmers, the cost of production reduces and so their profitability increases. In this way, the farmers also earn more from the yields and are able to employ workers, improving their living standards. For example, small scale coffee farmers have increased their yields from 2kgs per tree to over 20kgs per tree. This has increased their earnings. If a coffee farmer has 600 trees and cherry prices are Ksh.50, then their earnings will increase from Ksh.60,000 to Ksh.600,000.
3.What has been the main challenge you had to overcome in your entrepreneurial experience?
Raising awareness and publicity so that many farmers and strategic partners could know about our work. We have been participating actively in networking sessions and engaging partners to assist us reach many farmers and scale up.
4.In your opinion, what are the main qualities an entrepreneur should have?
An entrepreneur should be able to identify a gap in the society and look for an effective solution that is affordable to the users. Furthermore, he or she must be persistent and focused on business as well as being a team player that strives to reach success.
5.Is there a person you are inspired by, i.e. an entrepreneur or a particular mentor?
In my life I have been inspired by David Kuria, who founded the eco-toilets in Kenya.
6.What would you suggest to a new-born entrepreneur?
A new-born entrepreneur should be willing to research widely on all aspects that affect the growth of a business and should earlier identify a team and partners to work with.
7.Could you tell us a particular satisfactory moment you had in your entrepreneurial activity?
I feel extremely satisfied any time I see happiness on farmers’ faces after they use our KOFAR products and manage to increase their yields. I am glad of that and it gets me very fulfilled.
8.Could you tell us how the MBA has helped you and your business?
The MBA in Social Entrepreneurship is a great and practical course that equips entrepreneurs to grow. This program taught me how to polish the company business plan and pitch to investors: it helped us get our current angel investor. It also helped me and the management team to work and plan through the entire process that would scale up the business.
Learn more on KOFAR
Facebook page: @kofarkenyaltd
Twitter page: @KOFArLTD @franmunyi
