Executive Management
MPOKO BOKANGA, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Mpoko Bokanga has a professional career spanning 33 years of international agricultural development, mainly in Africa. Food technologist by training (PhD, Food technology, 1989, Cornell University, USA), he retired from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 2014 where his last assignment was as Representative to Kenya, Eritrea and South Sudan. Prior to this position, Dr. Bokanga, was leading the Agribusiness Development Unit at UNIDO Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and before that, was Chief Technical Adviser of the West Africa Quality Programme, based in Abuja, Nigeria. His career also includes R&D activities in public and private institutions: WESTRECO inc., a subsidiary of Nestlé in the USA; International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, university teaching (Alabama A&M University in the USA), and corporate management of a science-based development organization (Executive Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, or AATF, in Nairobi, Kenya).
While at IITA (1989-2001), Dr. Bokanga, who did his PhD dissertation on traditional methods of cassava fermentation, spent several years developing the processing of cassava into what is now known as High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) for incorporation in fast moving consumer goods such as bread and other bakery products (biscuits, cakes, chin chin, meat pies, etc.).
From 2016 to 2020, Dr. Bokanga worked as a consultant at the African Development Bank (AfDB) working on the strategy for the development of Special Agroprocessing Zones (SAPZ) and later as the Manager of the Clearinghouse of the AfDB-funded project Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a project for scaling up proven high-performance agricultural technologies to promote agribusiness in Africa, implemented by IITA.
In 2021, Dr. Bokanga, in partnership with Dr. Armstrong Takang, established the consulting firm Growth Alliance Partners (GAP) to deliver services to build competitive and sustainable businesses that produce exceptional returns to investors and promoters, while positively impacting host communities. In 2022, Dr. Bokanga was appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC).