ACA Board

The Executive Committee (EC) is the ACA’s governing body. Its mandate is to provide strategic direction, general guidance, and oversight to the ACA Secretariat. The EC reviews and approves ACA budgets, administrative policies, activity reports, contracts, and other agreements. It elects a President and two Vice-Presidents from among its members.

The EC meets twice per year, usually once at the Secretariat's premises and once at the annual World Cashew Festival. Additional meetings can be scheduled by the Secretariat at the request of most EC members. Additionally, the EC also meets twice a year with the Advisory Board, which has a final and decisive vote on the uses of ACA funds. The EC is elected every two years by a General Assembly of registered and paid-up ACA members, usually during the ACA Annual Conference. The current EC was elected in September 2020.

  Sanfo Ibrahim - President (ACA)

   Mr Sanfo Ibrahim is a graduate of the Nazi Boni University in Bobo Dioulasso. He is an           influential leader in Burkina Faso's cashew sector. He has chaired the Burkina Cashew           Interprofessional Committee (CIA-B) since 2021 and represents cashew stakeholders on       the ACA and CBA Board of Directors as well as President of Burkina Faso Interprofessional Agricultural Organizations Consultation Framework (CCOIA-BF). He is the promoter of PROSPERO, an import-export company for cashew and oilseed products. His attachment to the rural world and his strategic vision has earned him great respect among the cashew industry in Africa and beyond. Until his election, Mr Sanfo was a Vice President of the ACA.

Tola Faseru - President (West Africa)

Mr. Faseru is Chairman of Colossus Investments Limited, a Nigerian company operating in the areas of cashew nuts and cocoa. His experience in the cashew business began in 1994, and in 2011 he was elected National President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN). He has worked to achieve significant quality improvement in Nigerian raw cashew nuts. 

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Minata Kone - Vice President (West Africa)

Minata Kone worked for sixteen years as an employee at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Cote D’Ivoire. She was inspired to work in trade after the early death of her father, which led to her selling products in the evenings after school to help support her family from the young age of eight. Today she is at the head of a processing company, which works at an industrial scale in Burkina Faso.

 Kate Kamba - Vice President (East Africa)

Ms. Kate Kamba is a prominent farmer and a processor of Cashew nuts in Tanzania. She owns the cashew nut processing factory M/s Perfect cashew Kernels (T) Ltd., which has the capacity to process metric tons 1,350 of raw cashew nuts per year located in Masasi district, Mtwara Region, Tanzania. In 1994, she was Deputy Minister of Industries and Trade of the United Republic of Tanzania. From 2001 to 2012, she served as a member of the East Africa Parliament. She has now retired from government services.

She has served as a council member of Sokoine University College of Agriculture since 1996 and is still serving today. She is also an active member of the Cashew Nut Processors Association.

Johanna Adotevi - Executive Committee Officer

Johanna Adotevi has 24 years of experience as the driving force for building new projects demonstrating cross-functional management expertise. She currently serves as the Commercial Director for Cajou Des Savanes (CASA).

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Charles Muigai - Executive Committee Officer

Mr. Charles Muigai is the Head of the Secretariat of the Nut Processors Association of Kenya. He brings over 16 years of experience in the private sector, enterprise, and agribusiness/agro-business development space. He has vast experience in agribusiness consulting, market analysis, business modeling, value chain advisory, and agro-processing advisory locally and internationally. Charles is a graduate and holds a master’s degree in International Business from the University of Nairobi, a Bachelor of Education (Arts) from the University of Nairobi.

Wayne Tilton - Executive Committee Officer

Wayne Tilton, the Director of Africa at Red River Foods, has been instrumental in the growth and development of Red River’s involvement in the African Cashew Industry for nearly a decade. Starting his career in Ghana as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2009-2011, he continues working to educate farmers on best practices.  Currently, he oversees all operations in Africa including the procurement of millions of pounds of dried fruits and nuts. Working in over 15 African countries, he is active in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs from beekeeping, orchard management, and seedlings distribution. He has toured most cashew factories in Africa helping to get processors to reach the USDA Food Safety Standards and has his certification as a Preventative Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI).  Wayne has served on the ACA Advisory Board and is currently a board member of ComCashew.

Wayne spends most of the year living in the heart of the cashew area in Ghana.

 

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Ronald Zaal - Executive Committee Officer

Wim Schipper - Executive Committee

Wim Schipper works for Intersnack, Europe’s leading snack processor. He has been active in the nut business for more than 20 years. He is the Procurement Director of Food. He has vast experience with cashews in Africa following his role as a Sourcing Manager. He is driven to improve sustainability along the value chain. 

                     Previous EC Members: (2014-2020)

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Florentino Nanque -President 

Florentino Nanque has served in the Public Administration of Guinea Bissau as the Counselor for Social Affairs to the Prime Minister and President of the Bissau City Council. He is a lawyer by profession having a postgraduate degree in contractual law and diplomatic and consular rights. He graduated from the Law School of Bissau in Guinea Bissau. He is a founding partner of Djonde Empreendimentos Flonan & Esposa SARL.

Georgette Taraf - President

Madame Taraf hails from Benin, where she first entered the cashew sector as a buyer in 1996. She began her first export operations as head of AGRO-PHEN, which become NAD & Co in 2008. Her involvement with ACA began in 2010 when she was elected head of the Benin National Committee.

Edgar Maokola-Majogo - Vice President (East Africa)

Mr. Maokola-Majogo is the Chairman of Southern Jumbo Cashewnut Ltd, a Tanzanian company where he is also a shareholder. He formerly served in the Tanzanian Government, where his last assignment was Minister of Defense. He resolved to go into growing, buying, and processing cashews to make use of his long management, social and political career, and to demonstrate that business is a viable and respectable career following retirement from public service.

Patrick Wainaina - Executive Committee Officer

Mr. Wainaina is the CEO of Jungle Nuts, a company he founded in 2004 in Kenya after working in the international telecommunications industry. Jungle Nuts has grown to become the second-largest nut company in Kenya and was the winner of Kenya's Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies award in 2011. Mr. Wainaina is the Secretary of NutPAK (Nut Processors Association of Kenya),  and the Chairman of the economic and social development organization Jungle Foundation. He also sits on the board of Action for Children in Conflict UK (AfPiC), Kenyan Chapter.