Dominic Mensah

Dominic Mensah is pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and is the founder of Dombelfarms, a venture focused on empowering over 760 million smallholder farmers in Africa trapped in systemic poverty. 

Dombelfarms provides agro-inputs and tech-enhanced advisory services to sustain smallholder farmer businesses, create decent jobs, enhance food security, promote environmental sustainability, and alleviate poverty in rural villages. Raised in a village by farming parents, Dominic draws on his experiences and believes rural villages are mired in poverty because they have historically been deprived of capital, education, and quality products and advisory services. Dominic is solving these problems by leveraging partnerships and a vertical integration model to create lasting social impact. 

Working directly with rural communities, Dombelfarms mitigates risks and enhances villages’ attractiveness to investors. These investors fund projects in primary production and manufacturing, providing jobs and contributing to local economic growth. Additionally, Dombelfarms’ technology platform aims to help farmers save money on logistics and input materials, and provides on-demand training and technical support on sustainable farming practices. Dombelfarms has more than doubled the income of its partnered farmers and villages, created over 100 new jobs, and directed approximately USD 1 million in investment to rural villages in Ghana. The company has served over 100 fish and egg producers and has strong partnerships with the MasterCard Foundation, Olam Agri, Koudijs, Maridav, and Takoradi Flour Mills of Ghana. 

Before attending Harvard Business School, Dominic spent three years at EY-Parthenon in technology strategy consulting, working with the food and agriculture practice. He helped publish EY’s 2022 Food Reimagined Report, focusing on smallholder farmers’ challenges and solutions. At Pomona College, Dominic explored the power of cooperatives in developing markets and studied the formalization of informal markets. Outside Dombelfarms, Dominic co-founded UpRaise, a youth empowerment program that has mentored over 1,000 Ghanaian high school graduates. Driven by a goal to create opportunities he lacked growing up, Dominic is dedicated to impacting millions of Africans who live in rural villages. As a Cheng Fellow, Dominic is excited to continue his economic and agricultural interventions in Ghana with the goal of creating positive social change on a systems level.