21/09/2026
This post about numbers from Sir Richard Munang is inspiring in an entirely different way. Read 👇🏽
I asked a cocoa farmer what he had been paid for his beans the previous week.
He looked at me and asked a simple question:
“What will I get for telling you?”
That question stayed with me.
This is precisely why numbers from the ground matter.
On 2 September 2026, a kilogram of Cameroonian cocoa was quoted at 3,517 CFA francs at the port.
Ten days later, one farmer told us he had received 2,200 francs for a kilogram.
In a small field observation covering nine farmers across three towns in one day, farmers selling through cooperatives received, on average, 283 francs more per kilogram than those selling individually.
Cameroon marketed 247,914 tonnes of cocoa last season.
If a gap of 283 francs per kilogram were replicated across that volume, it would represent more than 70 billion CFA francs, approximately €107 million.
That does not prove that 70 billion francs is being lost.
It tells us where research must look.
The value is not necessarily lost in the tree. It can disappear in the spaces between the farm and the market.
Between the shed and the lorry.
Between the lorry and the port.
Between the price announced and the price actually paid.
Who weighs? Who buys? Who records the transaction? Who has access to the information?
These are not small questions.
My grandmother used to say that the heap behind the house is the only wealth a family refuses to weigh.
She was right.
The farmer I met was not hiding his number. He had simply never been shown that recording his own number could have value to him first.
One sheet of paper.
One month.
Three towns.
Sometimes the beginning of better policy is simply making the invisible visible.
Africa is not poor in value.
Too much of its value remains uncounted.
Our biggest problem will always be getting the right numbers. If you are doing anything at all to earn a living, you must realize that numbers, no matter how small they are, are alone more important than whatever you are doing.
MboaSuite BOS is prioritizing numbers, giving you more visibility on everything you do.
What do you think of his write up?
