What started as backyard farming on a small plot of land has now evolved into arguably one of the leading agricultural food brands in the country.
In 2016, a young man with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science, who was also a Teaching Assistant at the University of Cape Coast, took a leap of faith and ventured into farming in his quest to solve issues of unemployment and other social vices in his community. This is the story of Vokia Farms. With a burning desire to make a positive impact in his community, he abandoned his white-collar job to begin farming, employing the youth in his community as labor, thereby curbing unemployment and reducing teenage pregnancies.
Vokia Farms, based in Kpetoe near Ho in the Volta Region, has expanded over the years to include agro-processing, with the objective of climbing up the value chain and creating more jobs, while seeking to exponentially increase its production capacity from the current 29,000 packs a year to 600,000 packs a year.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Ghanaian Farmer at his company’s headquarters on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Chief Executive Officer Vozbeth Azumah recounted how he was heavily criticised by his family members and friends for abandoning his ‘office job’ to venture into agriculture.
“I remember vividly when I decided to come back home and begin this backyard farming. My parents were very angry at me, and even my friends laughed at me because they couldn’t understand why I would leave my job as a Teaching Assistant and come to the village to farm. However, I wanted to reduce unemployment and empower women in agriculture, which is evident because about 70% of our workers here are women. I also wanted to reduce the teeming number of teenage pregnancies here,” he noted.
With no prior knowledge of agriculture, Mr. Azumah had to rely on social media to self-educate himself on the subject of farming.
Mr. Azumah also shared with The Ghanaian Farmer how he lost over two acres of farm produce due to the unavailability of a ready market for his produce. “You know, I had to think of value addition when I lost two acres of my farm yields due to the lack of a market. I had to think of new strategies; that was when the idea of value addition came up. We then began processing our own produce into finished products, and that was how Vokia Foods started. We now process the grains we farm into finished and ready-to-use products like Hausa Koko, Tom Brown, corn grits (Ekoegbemi & Oblayo), as well as cassava flour. We are currently working with over fifty farmer groups who supply us with raw materials to meet our production capacity, even though we have our own farm,” Mr. Azumah explained.
Vokia Farms currently has about 30 employees, with some outsourced from other farms when the need arises. Also contributing to the success of Vokia Farms is the wife of the CEO, Madam Emmanuella Pi-Bansah, who is the director in charge of operations. She also sheds light on how Vokia Farms enforces strict health and safety compliance to meet Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) standards. “As an indigenous company, we are committed to promoting and advocating for the consumption of made-in-Ghana goods, so about 99% of all our raw and packaged materials are locally sourced. This is to limit imports and empower local factories while contributing to the local economy. We currently have our products in the Volta, Oti, and Greater regions. We are also looking to expanding our products to other parts of the country even though we have a huge market in Togo and some other countries.” Madam Emmanuella highlighted.
In their concluding remarks, the owners of Vokia Farms encouraged the Ghanaian Youth to see agribusiness as venture that presents so many opportunities. It can fetch them money, whilst reducing unemployment rates and contributing to the country’s food security.
Story by: BY STEPHEN FREEMAN FOR THE GHANAIAN FARMER.
