LbH, Inc.
LbH is building the credit intelligence and data infrastructure to make smallholder farmers financeable. By transforming fragmented farm-level activity into trusted financial metrics, LbH unlocks locally available growth capital to drive productivity and income for farmers across Africa. To date, LbH has facilitated $5.4 million in financing to over 13,000 smallholder farmers and digitized more than 72,000 farmers.
The Problem
Smallholder farmer financing is a foundational input for food production and reliable income, yet in Ghana it remains structurally constrained. Despite agriculture contributing to approximately 20% of the GDP and employing up to 40% of the labor force, less than 5% of total bank lending flows into the sector. Smallholder farmers are widely perceived as high-risk and “unbankable” due to seasonal income cycles, climate variability, and limited formal employment and credit history. This imbalance reflects a broader sub-Saharan African agricultural financing gap estimated at over $170 billion.
The capital exists within domestic financial systems, but it does not reach smallholder farmers in a way that is timely, appropriately structured, or scalable. Without trusted, standardized data connecting farmers, lenders, and suppliers, capital deployment remains slow, mispriced, and misaligned with production needs. The absence of data infrastructure is the primary constraint preventing smallholder farmers in Ghana from accessing growth financing.
The Solution
LbH digitizes farmer and farm-level data, enabling smallholder farmers to access financing from local banks. Farmers are onboarded onto LbH’s database system, where they can submit farm activity data — including crop type, acreage, production capacity, and farming and yield history. Once data is submitted, LbH shares farmer profiles with lenders offering commercial-rate loans, with an average annual interest rate of 18%. Loans range from $600 to $2,500 on average and are available to farmers across a variety of operations, including crop, aquaculture, and poultry. LbH’s unique combination of tools — including screening, scoring, and monitoring — derisks farmers and unlocks an untapped market for banks.
LbH creates a virtuous cycle of growth for farmers. As more farmers join the platform, their data becomes stronger and more reliable, leading to improved risk ratings, increased lender participation, and greater access to financing — attracting more farmers and reinforcing the cycle.
LbH will scale by pursuing network-based growth — partnering with large farmer cooperatives and aggregators, embedding financing at the point of need within distribution channels, and expanding their financial institution partners to improve credit availability and pricing competitiveness. LbH is also building a digital wallet functionality to enable transaction histories, repayment tracking, and embedded financial services. LbH aims to reach 1 million farmers by 2031.
Impact
LbH has facilitated loans to 13,000 farmers — 70% of whom are women and youth — increasing their income by an average of 250%.
LbH has profiled more than 72,000 farmers across seven regions, creating a robust database of digitized farmer records.
LbH’s farmer management tools have reduced GHG emissions by 120,000 tons.
Leadership
Ato Kwamena Mensah
Ato, founder and CEO, is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and third-generation poultry farmer. He has a background in computer science and information technology. While completing his computer science degree at the University of Ghana, he launched his own poultry farm and experienced firsthand the challenges of accessing credit and working capital. That experience became the catalyst for founding LbH. Ato has participated in several reputable accelerator programs and is a founder of 500 Global.