About Us

Kayonga Farms Ltd was established in 2019 near Bong Mines, Margibi county, in Liberia, West Africa. The farm employs about 55 contractors and 21 permanent employees from the surrounding areas and neighboring towns. We are into mixed farming, mainly cocoa, but also growing plantain, pawpaw, and chili peppers and raising country chickens, guinea fowl, goats and fish. We plan to go into palm oil, cashew nuts, avocado, etc.

About the Founders

Kayonga Farms was founded by Deo Gahiza and his wife Joanna. Thinking of their retirement, they could only see themselves as agripreneurs in Liberia after working hard in Canada. While generating income through their family business, they will also help the Liberian economy.

Deo Gahiza grew up on his parents’ poultry, cattle, and vegetable farms in Liberia. His father was an animal husbandry expert. When the civil war started, the family moved to Ghana where his father managed one of the largest poultry farming businesses in Ghana. Again, he lived on a farm until the family emigrated to Canada.

In Canada, he studied Computer Information Systems and worked in the IT field for few years. Later, he entered the real estate industry and, from 2005, he worked for himself buying and selling real estate. Then in 2018, he and his wife considered investing in Africa so that one day they can move back home. It was a no-brainer to start with agriculture which he knew best and in which his parents had been very successful.

Their research showed that the international demand for cocoa was huge and the crop had maintained its value and demand for ages. While growing up in Ghana in the 1990s, Deo and his wife saw how the Ghanaian and the Ivory Coast economies thrived on cocoa. They concluded that Liberia, which is close to these countries, could be blessed with cocoa as well. What drives them most is their belief that if people in Ivory Coast can be successful in cocoa farming, they can do the same in Liberia.

So, the couple started to research cocoa. They took agricultural technicians from Ivory Coast to Liberia to test the soil and start up their cocoa nursery. From there, they started the cocoa farm in 2020, and today they have several crop and animal projects.