The Problem
Many West African cocoa farmers live in a seemingly endless cycle of abject poverty.
We've identified a few reasons for this.
lack of capital
Many Cocoa Farmers in Ghana & Ivory Coast live on only 40 cents a day. These stringent conditions make capital intensive farming investments such as cultivating more land, buying new machinery or employing more workers difficult.
limited finance schemes
Most cocoa farmers are considered unbankable and therefore ineligible for loans. Reasons for this are cited as Lack of land use rights, little or no collateral, lack of financial documentation or literacy, and a lack of access to formal finance.
Lack of financial records
Farmers see almost no incentives for opening bank accounts due to the lack of loan schemes and similar programs. This however causes problems as it leaves them without a record of their financial activities, should financing schemes actually come their way.
limited financial literacy
Limited access to education and a subsistence mind-set have contributed to low financial literacy amongst small-holder farmers This lack of financial awareness positions the farmers in a constant cycle of poverty.
language barrier
Most farmers are not conversant in English, this proves to be a hindrance when creating solutions for farmers. Technical or non-technical engagement of farmers in any solution will need to tackle this barrier first.
Low Levels of Education
Education opens the mind of farmers to knowledge, provides training and better methods of farming. Which helps the farmer yeild more profit. Lack of education has hindered millions of farmers from growing financially and socially.
Intuitive Voice Prompts
Vocoa enables an interaction in the local dialect between the system voice menus or customer care agents and the farmers.
Monitor Cash Flow
Vocoa collects data on the farmers’ expenditure and revenue to monitor cash flow and provide insights on how to maximise profit.
Maintain Financial Records
Cash flow is monitored to gather Financial records which will serve as future reference in respect to loan applications for farmers.
Receive Vocal Reports
Vocoa works within the tight margins of low literacy levels among African farmers. This context is the basis for its Voice operated services which are in English and other respective local languages.

Our Data Provides A Huge Data Ware House. We Use This Big Data To Provide Analytics.
We Use The data to assist stakeholders in the cocoa industry in helping improve the lives of cocoa farmers.
Machine Learning For Farming Communities
Information collected through Vocoa will be processed and analysed using Artificial Intelligence techniques to provide optimum service to farmers & farmer communities.
Financial Insights For Cocoa Stakeholders
Researchers, Government Institutions and stakeholders in the cocoa industry will have access to insights for various farming sample groups from a variety of parameters developed by our data analytics team. These insights will be used by these actors to further improve the cocoa value chain, especially the lives of cocoa farmers
Our Partners
The Team

Adeolu Fola-Alade

Yaw Busia

Gbenga Fola-Alade

David Peterside

Nana Attafuah

Kofi Akyeampong

Michael Ahinkurah
Contact
Get In Touch
Have more questions? Want to partner with us? Or need to contact us for any reason? You can reach us using the following details.
Lancaster University
A&C Square, East Legon
Accra Ghana
E: hello@vocoa.net
P: +233 54 541 0974