Tieme Ndo

Moses is an experienced farmer, an innovative social entrepreneur known for driving results, “can do” mindset, and insightful perspectives that shape new projects and ideas. Moses is the Founder and Director of Operations of Tieme Ndo, a social enterprise that has developed a unique asset-financing model to give smallholders, convenient and time access to improved farm inputs and technologies. Thus, empowering them to double their crop productivity and income. Moses holds a BSc. Degree in Business Administration from Ashesi University and an alumni of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. Moses is passionate about accelerating the adoption of innovative poverty-alleviating products, services and information by people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Tieme Ndo addresses smallholder farmers' inability to access credit to purchase farm inputs as well as limited access to training and extension services. 

To that, we have developed the Credit Extension Package - an asset-backed loan which allows farmers to loans in the form of a bundle of fertilizers, seeds, small farm equipment, training and extension services all on credit. After harvest, we assist our farmers to find market to sell their produce. 

Our unique asset-financing model, has empowered over 300 farmers to expand their field and increasing their yield by over 35%. Our project is to provide rural farmers the resources, tools and knowledge needed to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. We want to see every farmer becomes self-sufficient  

Tieme Ndo solves two main problems: limited access to credit by smallholder farmers to pay for improved seeds, fertilizers or expand their fields; as well as limited access to agricultural information, training and extension services. These two issues mired farmers in extreme hunger and poverty as they are unable to produce more food to feed their families and possibly sell excess for an income. 

In Ghana, over 6.8 million go hungry everyday. Globally, more than 800K people go bed hungry everyday. Interestingly, 80% of the agricultural production in Africa is done by smallholder, yet they are the poorest and the most food insecure on the continent. The reason being, their inability to access credit facilities to finance their farm activities. According to the African Development Bank, less than 3% of these farmers have access to capital as loans to purchase improved farm inputs. More than 80% of them do not plant improved seeds. 

In addition, they do not receive any form of training and extension services on best farm practices. In Ghana, the farmer-to-extension officer ratio is
1:1500 farmers making it impossible for the officer to train all these farmers.  

Tieme Ndo has developed a an asset-financing model called the Credit Extension Package (CEP). Under the CEP program, we register farmers into groups of fifteen (15) members. We then give each farmers a bundle of farm inputs consisting of fertilizers, seeds, small farm equipment and herbicides. We also train them on best farming practices especially on the 4R Nutrient Management. Our extension officers visit them on their farms to assist them implement the training received. After harvest, we link them up with markets to sell their produce. 

In addition, our R&D team conceptualize, research and develop farm innovations and technologies that empower farmers to increase their field productivity. Or innovations that makes farming easier. One of these innovations is Baobo (Growth), a layaway concept that allows farmers to make incremental contributions towards the purchase of their farm inputs at the beginning of the farming season. 

Our target customers are smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. Farming is their main occupation and the only source of livelihood. Every household owns an average of 2acres of land and depend solely on the rains to grow their food crops (maize, rice, groundnuts, sorghum, cassava etc.). Farming is always on a small scale using rudimentary farm tools (cutlasses and hoes) and practices. These farmers have never received training and extension services to help them implement best farm practices that are climate resilient. They recycle and plant their old seeds and often do not apply fertilizers to their crops. Hence, crop yields are always low and earn less than $2 per day. This makes it extremely difficult for the households to feed themselves, pay children’s school fees and health insurance. On many occasions, children of these households go to bed and school on an empty stomach. Parents had to prioritize buying food stuff over buying school uniforms to sustain them through the long dry season. Sometimes, the children have to stay at home for years while their elder siblings complete junior high school so they could use their tattered uniforms.

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In Africa, particularly Ghana, over 80% of the population are smallholder farmers who have dreams and aspirations to produce enough food, earn more income and lift their families out of poverty. However, they lack the resources, knowledge and support system to realize their dreams. In particular, smallholders have limited access to credit or loans to expand their farms.

This is why we have designed this organization to ensure that, farmers have access to credit and the resources needed to expand their farms, acquire improved farm inputs, produce more food, earn more income and lift themselves out of poverty. 

The idea to start Tieme Ndo came to me in the Summer of 2016. I returned from school to do an internship with a bank and help my parents on the farm as usual. My parents cultivated about one acre of maize but harvested 2bags. I was not surprised though, because that has always been the normal yield
since. However, with my new level of education, I began to ask for the first time, why the low yield. Then I thought, if I could help farmers increase their crop yields, they could earn more income

Having experienced this and with the opportunity to study in a university that emphasizes on problem solving and entrepreneurship, I begun to ask myself what I could do to improve the economic activities (which is farming) of my people? Thus, the founding of Tieme Ndo Social Enterprise.   

My personal experience of hunger and poverty for over 15 years is the reason why I am committed to ending hunger and poverty entirely among rural households and I believe that, “if I don’t do what I am doing, who else will?” I was born in July 1993 in rural Northern Ghana, during the cropping season. At the time my parents had planted their crops. Having realized they had less grains left to feed the family, my parents were frustrated, scared and thought I would die out of hunger. So, they decided to named me as Kongku”,
which loosely translates as “hunger will kill you”.

Growing up, while helping my parents on the farm, I saw how my parents worked so hard on the farm, yet harvest were very little. This makes it extremely difficult for my parents to feed us. Indeed, hunger would
have killed me because I remember the many nights and days I went to bed and school on an empty stomach. My parents have to prioritize buying food stuff over buying school uniforms to sustain us through the long dry season.

Having experienced this, I do not want the next generation to experience hunger in their lives

Having acquired my tertiary education from Ashesi University, I have become an ethical and entrepreneurial leader with a problem solving and "can-do" mindset. I have enhanced my skills in research, customer development, product development through my work experience with Burro Brand Ghana Ltd as a Business Development Associate. I have also worked and studied with people from the Americas, UK, Asia and Africa, helping me develop skills in remote/international team management as well as the ability
to work with different social and economic backgrounds.

In 2019, we faced a financial crisis as we were unable to access the revenue and income we saved with our financial institution. Since 2018, there has been a banking crisis in Ghana and depositors are unable to access their savings, which included the bank with which my organisation savings were kept. Hence, we began the 2019 farming season with no money, yet suppliers demanded cash down payment before delivery. On the other hand, my farmers were anxious as it was time for fertilizer application, yet we had
no stock. 

To solve the problem, I mobilized maize from my farmer groups and used as collateral for my supplier to deliver. With the maize, the supplier was willing to deliver the farm inputs in return for the grains as part payment for the inputs. As such, we received 1metric ton of fertilizers and 2metric ton of seeds to start the season with. With this, we were able to supply $10000 worth of inputs to 200 farmers on credit and over 1000 farmers on cash.

While at Ashesi, I became the president of the Ashesi Football Association for the 2016/2017 academic year and for the first time, the Ashesi Premier League got featured on a major online news portal in Ghana called “myjoyonline”. For the first time in the history of the school, we held an “Award Night” to recognize and reward outstanding players and personalities who contributed to sports on campus. In fact, my turner of office made the association one of the vibrant clubs on campus. Actually, within one semester, we organised two separate football competitions: The Ashesi Premier League and the “FA

Cup”. 

Also, I have organized and led two separate teams from a "Leadership Course" at Ashesi University to travel to Northern Ghana to mentor Junior High and Senior High school students to help them discover their talents. 

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The innovative aspect of the project is our Credit Extension Package (CEP) which empowers smallholder farmers to expand their fields, increase crop production and income. Our model is backed by a “strong farm group system” which allows our farmers to hold each other accountable in terms of achieving yield targets and loans repayment. The group system facilitate the dissemination of information, sharing of ideas and problem solving. Also, we focus on enhancing the capacity of our farmers on value addition. Our Annual Farmers Forum is a unique event to convene all our hardworking farmers in December every year, to share ideas, listen to their aspirations and frustrations and to celebrate their collaborative effort to fight hunger and poverty.  

Our theory of change is to "Transform smallholder farmers into semi-commercial farmers". Ghana spend over GHC300 million (cedis) on food importation. However, the 80% of the Ghanaian population are involve in agriculture. Unfortunately, farming in Ghana is on subsistence basis, farming on averagely less than a hector of land using rudimentary farming tools and practices. Food production is often low and for the purpose of feeding ones family. 

In this project, we want to change that narrative by empowering smallholder farmers with the tools and resources needed to expand their fields beyond just cultivating a hector of land. Currently, we want to see them produce more food to feed their families and possibly sell excess for an income. In the long term, we want to see them increasing their field size. This way, we expect them to produce more food in large quantities to feed their families and sell excess for an income. We want to see them become self sufficient within five years after joining our program. We want to contribute to reduce food importation in Ghana. 

My project currently support over 1700 farmers (1400 cash customers and 300 CEP beneficiaries)

In one year time, we will serve 2500 farmers (2000 cash customers and 500 CEP beneficiaries)

In five years, we will be serving 5000 farmers (3000 cash customers 1500 CEP customers) 

Since our launch in 2017, Tieme Ndo has been able to distribute over 4700 bags of fertilizers and over 3tons of improved maize seeds. This has reached over 1500 rural farmers in 50 remote communities across 3 district capitals in the Upper West Region of Ghana. We have also organised over 10 training sessions to train over 163 farmers on best agronomic practices and have went further to provide them with extension services which they would not have received without our services. After conducting an evaluation on our credit customers, we realize an average increase in yields by 25% in 2017 and further increased by 35% in 2018. This means, families of these farmers will now have enough food to feed their children and possibly sell extra for an income. An estimated 4500 children has been impacted and will be able to stay in school. 

In the next five years, we want to enroll 1500 farmers onto our Credit Extension Package and distribute improved farm inputs to 3000 farmers in remote communities. 

My major barriers are limited funds and limited human capital.

We have less funds to implement our strategies to grow as expected. as such, we are unable to invest in building a skillful team that would help us implement these strategies. 

We are currently submitting proposals to donor organisations to raise 500000 US Dollars.

I am reaching out to our network to seek volunteers who will help us work implement our strategies 

Naasons Agro Ltd - Supplier of fertilizers

AMG Ghana - supplier of fertilizers

Yara Ghana - supplier of fertilizers

Antika Company Ltd - Supplier of improved seeds

K-Badu Company Ltd - supplier of herbicides and small farm equipment 

Ashesi University - mentorship

We provide rural smallholder farmers with convenient and timely access to improved farm inputs that double their crop yield and income. We have distribute packages of inputs consisting of fertilizers, seeds, herbicides and small farm equipment to to farmer cooperatives on credit through our Credit Extension Package. We register the farmers into cooperatives, deliver the inputs to each of them, train them on best farm practices and visit them to hep implement best agronomic practices.

We also distribute the inputs through a network of retailers and village entrepreneurs on cash to farmers in remote communities. 

Our plan is to generate 70% of our revenue through cash sales to our customers and 30% revenue through our Credit Extension package. 

Also, we want to distribute at least 400 metric tons of fertilizers, 20 metric tons of seeds and 10000 farm equipment every cropping season. For every product, we want to earn at least 15% gross margin for every product sold. 

D-Prize Foundation 2017 - $20000 (USD), convertible grants 

MasterCard Foundation, 2019 - $8000 (USD), grants

Ford Foundation 2018 - $3000 (USD), grants 

As at December 2019, we recorded a total of $42,000 (USD) in revenue. This amount was generated through the sales of fertilizers, seeds, herbicides and small farm equipment on both cash and credit 

We hoping to $560,000 USD in funding by June 2021. We need either grant or debt financing . 

Our total budgeted expenses for 2020 is $20000 USD. This expenses is to pay salaries, rent, marketing/promotions, training of farmers and staff, field extension etc.

The receiving funding support from the Elevate Prize. I also need publicity from the Elevate Prize this could help me attract more funding and talent.

I also want to network with other prize winners to collaborate on new projects on how to help humanity.

I want to partner with an inputs manufacturer in the next five years to import high quality improved fertilizers, seeds, herbicides, insecticides and small farm equipment

Manufacturers of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides,

Seed producers