From Farmer’s Son to Agro-entrepreneur: UB Graduate Adds Value to Cameroon’s Cocoa

In the quiet neighbourhood of Small Soppo, Buea, a young agripreneur is quietly rewriting the narrative of cocoa farming in Cameroon, one bottle of cocoa milk at a time.

Samuel Teke Ndive, a graduate of the University of Buea’s Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, has turned the bitter reality of fluctuating cocoa prices into a sweet story of innovation and resilience.

It was August 2025 when the idea first began. Cocoa prices had taken a downturn, and Ndive watched farmers, many from his own humble background, struggle to make ends meet.

A graduate of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, he found himself asking a vital question: What more could be done with cocoa beyond selling the raw beans?

“I was wondering what I could do, how I could add value from my knowledge of agriculture,” Ndive recalls.

The answer came through a special training programme organised by the Limunga Foundation on food processing, detergent making, and cosmetology. Armed with new skills and a burning desire to create, Samuel Teke Ndive set out to design his own processing machines and transform cocoa beans into products that could compete on store shelves.

Ndive’s Growing Product Line

Today, Samuel Teke Ndive Ndive’s brand, Santtea Choco, offers a range of value-added cocoa products. These include cocoa milk blended with soyabean milk specially formulated for children, sugar-free cocoa milk for health-conscious consumers, and an all-purpose cocoa milk variant. He also produces raw cocoa powder, cocoa butter, chocolate bars, and cocoa powder specifically for baking.

Each product carries the stamp of innovation born from both classroom knowledge and hands-on experimentation.

From Small Soppo to Across the Region

Operating from his base at Mermoz in Small Soppo, Ndive runs the business with his family and a team of youth ambassadors drawn from the university community.

His products are now available at three main outlets in Buea: a shop at UB Junction beside Mount Zion Pharmacy, another at Clerks Quarters, and his production site at Mermoz.

Through an expanding network of ambassadors, Santtea Choco products have reached customers in Limbe, Tiko, Mutengene, and even as far as Yaounde.

Ndive’s journey has not gone unnoticed. He has appeared in national newspapers and participated in competitions like You Challenge Cameroon, gaining recognition for his efforts to breathe new life into Cameroon’s cocoa sector.

For the young entrepreneur, the motivation remains deeply personal. “Seeing cocoa farmers suffer, and coming from a humble background myself, I knew I had to find something to do,” he says.

As he continues to grow his business, Samuel Teke Ndive stands as proof that Cameroon’s agricultural future lies not just in what farmers grow, but in what young minds can create from it.

This also aligns with the country’s import substitution policy, which encourages local transformation of goods produced in the country.