Governance &
Leadership
CANWYF is built on transparency. This page gives donors, partners, and community members a clear account of who runs CANWYF, how decisions are made, how the organisation is structured, and what we are working toward.
Why CANWYF exists.
CANWYF was founded in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, by Francis Osayomi โ a full-stack developer and programme lead with deep roots in the Ekiti farming community. Returning with a specific mission: to build the infrastructure that rural farmers had always been excluded from, using community trust and modern technology as complementary tools rather than competing ones.
The founding question was not "how do we bring technology to farmers?" It was "what does a farmer in Araromi Ekiti actually need to be treated as a credible economic actor?" The answer was not an app. It was a verified identity โ backed by people they trusted, their community and their Oba โ that anyone outside the community could check.
That insight became iTONA AFRICA. The Oba Seal is not a marketing device. It is the core of a governance model that says: the community verifies its own members, and technology makes that verification legible to the outside world. CANWYF's role is to build and sustain the infrastructure between those two layers.
Francis founded Green Francis Limited in 2019 and CANWYF in 2024 โ formally registered as a CAC Incorporated Trustee in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State โ specifically so that the organisation would be structurally accountable: to its beneficiaries, to its donors, and to the communities it serves, not merely to its founders. He serves as Farmer #0 and Coordinator #0 in the iTONA registry, with his own cocoa farm (ICN-EK-001-0001) as the founding plot of the Araromi Ekiti pilot.
How CANWYF is governed.
CANWYF's governance is structured in three layers: formal organisational governance (Board of Trustees), programme governance (Seal Councils and community leadership), and operational management (programme and field teams). Each layer has a defined scope and accountability.
The people building CANWYF.
CANWYF is a lean, mission-driven team in the early phase of its work. Click any team member to view their full profile.
Building our advisory network.
CANWYF is actively constituting an advisory network of practitioners, researchers, and sector experts. The following advisory roles are being filled as the programme scales. If you have relevant expertise and interest in CANWYF's mission, we would welcome a conversation.
Community + Technology + Field Operations.
CANWYF operates across three integrated layers that work together to deliver verified impact. Understanding how these layers connect is essential to understanding why the model is designed as it is.
๐ฑ Technology Layer
The iTONA AFRICA platform โ coordinator app, admin system, farmer verification portal, AgroMarket, AgroShield, and AgroWallet. Built offline-first for rural use. All data verified and tamper-detected. Publicly accessible at canwyf.org/verify.
๐ค Community Layer
ICN Cooperative Chapters, elected Seal Councils, and traditional authority endorsement. The community layer is what makes the system trustworthy โ not because CANWYF says so, but because local people the farmers already trust have verified their credentials. This layer cannot be bypassed.
๐ Field Operations
Trained, paid field coordinators who conduct GPS-confirmed farm visits, enroll farmers, record harvests, and maintain the relationship between CANWYF and the farming community. Coordinator performance is tracked, published, and directly tied to remuneration.
CAC Incorporated Trustee โ Nigeria.
CANWYF is formally registered as a CAC Incorporated Trustee under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, Part F โ Nigeria's legal structure for non-profit organisations with fiduciary obligations. This means CANWYF has legal obligations to its beneficiaries and the public, not merely to its founders.
Transparent by design.
Accountable by structure.
CANWYF was registered as a formal organisation not as a formality โ but because accountability to farmers, donors, and the wider public is the foundation the programme must be built on. If you have questions about our governance, we welcome them.