Offered a role and a corner office in Dubai, London or Madrid in a multinational tech company, most people would jump at the opportunity. Judy Njogu-Mokaya didn’t. She handed in her papers and finally decided to chase a dream in Kenya.

“My husband couldn’t believe I was returning my laptop,” she says. Ms Njogu always wanted to do something impactful for her community and took the overseas job offer as a sign that the time had come.

As she was mulling her options, Ms Njogu received an email from Antler- a business incubator that sources and trains talented minds in the tech realm to pursue start up opportunities.

They would support her to be a founder in their mantra as ‘the day zero investor.’ At the time, Ms Njogu wasn’t sure what she would delve into but dove into the training offered. She was quickly taught the art of ‘killing ideas that wouldn’t work.’

At Antler, Ms Njogu met Koya Matsumo- a Japanese entrepreneur. In her words, they started ‘sprinting’ together; a euphemism for taking on challenges as a team in their training class. She also met Ian Wambai, a Kenyan tech-guru and together they would co-found VunaPay with Ms Njogu as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Matsumo as chief operations officer and Mr Wambai as chief technology officer.

“I wanted to do something for small-holder farmers,” Ms Njogu reveals of her gravitational pull. “We all say that agriculture is the backbone of our economy, most of it under small-holder farmers. How is it that these farmers in charge of the bulk of our Gross Domestic Product are the bottom feeders?” she posed.

In her estimation, she would expect these anchors of society to be ‘driving around in big cars!’ Something is broken, she concluded.

Case study

With their own resources, the team of three went out to investigate this problem – the plight of small-holder farmers and how they could incorporate technology to help. They spoke to co-operatives who by estimations handle more than 50 percent of farmers’ produce in Kenya.

They observed that when a farmer takes produce to a co-operative, they have to wait for six to nine months and sometimes a year to get remunerated. “I don’t know how long you can wait before your salary is paid,” Ms Njogu wonders.

As a result of the long waiting periods, the team at VunaPay observed that most farmers resorted to selling their produce to middlemen at a throw-away price, while others had little option but to subsist on ‘very expensive mobile loans.’

Digitising the platforms

Armed with their research, VunaPay sought to digitise co-operative systems and in so doing, collect information as to how much produce a farmer brings to the factory.

These platforms were then deployed at the factory and co-operative employees offered training on how to utilise them. They set up produce, inventory, and advance (payment) management among other systems.

VunaPay CEO Judy Njogu Mokaya during an interview at Inca Restaurant, Nairobi on September 28, 2023. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG

Further, VunaPay sought and established a partnership with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) as a financier to see that farmers receive a fraction of their total dues once they deliver their produce.

Given the fact that most farmers, not being tech-savvy, don’t have access to smartphones, a USSD code system was set up, where once a farmer brought in their yield, an SMS would pop up on their phone to inform them of the weight of the produce and how much of their cash they would be able to withdraw – at the touch of a button on their phones. The scales at the factory are further linked to VunaPay’s systems via Bluetooth to ensure this!

Areas of operation

Currently, VunaPay is working with coffee farmers as the initial programme.

“We are working with all the coffee co-operatives in Kiambu,” Ms Njogu says. They, however, intend to move operations to other parts of the country as well as diversify their produce of interest to include the dairy sector as well as bring tea farmers into the fold.

A large agribusiness company has registered their interest in working with VunaPay and dairy farmers, which will see the operations balloon from a few locations to a countrywide operation.

VunaPay currently has over 8,000 farmers registered on their platform with a further 500,000 waiting in the wings to join. In a country that has over 12,000 registered cooperative societies, there is a lot of work to be done.

The three co-founders are currently the only permanent staff at VunaPay. They, however, employ an agent model where they work with individuals from areas of interest to help position them with the co-operatives.

Ms Njogu chuckles and says farmers want people from the community, people they know and “not someone coming with too much English!”

She reveals that they will have to bring in other professionals to work in specific roles at VunaPay. “It will get too big for the three of us and we will hire for exact roles. We don’t want to throw people at it but we will be hiring in the next month or so,” she says.

Dangerous times

At a recent meeting, Ms Njogu recalls she once asked farmers, who are in the older bracket, how many of their children or grandchildren were interested in taking up farming.

“I thought at least a third would raise their hands,” she says shocked. None did. She reckons the average age of the Kenyan farmer is 60. “This backbone is dying!” she laments, “If we don’t change our payment (modes), we’ll lose farming.”

VunaPay CEO Judy Njogu Mokaya during an interview at Inca Restaurant, Nairobi on September 28, 2023. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG

She has experienced situations whereby the younger generation, once given the mantle of taking up the family land, will uproot the crop and go on to buy boda bodas [taxi motorcycles] which offer a quicker turn-around.

In a prophetic tone, Ms Njogu warns, “Farming is still organised for the older people. Until we start coming up with strategies for the youth, we will lose the agricultural sector!”

In this aspect, VunaPay is well and truly on track to ensure farmers receive their pay as quickly as they deliver their produce.