How Daniel Kemdeng is using his farming roots in Cameroon to help transform the lives of the next generation alongside his career in banking
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It’s hard to imagine a better candidate as an ambassador for Canary Wharf Group’s Where Ambition Lives campaign than Daniel Kemdeng.
Firstly, he satisfies the description in that his home is at Vertus’ 10 George Street building and he was one of the very first people to take up residence on the estate.
Secondly, he works locally. As vice president of model risk governance and review at JP Morgan Chase & Co, his commute to the office is a short stroll over to Bank Street from his apartment.
Finally, there’s his purpose – to live a life fighting poverty, honouring the legacy of his grandfather and father through entrepreneurial zeal and the social impact of his flourishing coffee business.
Daniel’s story sits alongside a diverse group of other individuals in CWG’s campaign, which aims to confound lazy, outdated stereotypes about the area by showcasing their work and ambitions.
For a deeper dive, we sat down with Daniel to find out more.
the value of education
“I was born and brought up in a small rural village of farmers in Cameroon,” he said.
“It was very beautiful and my family had been involved in growing produce there for many years.
“One of the main crops was coffee as well as growing food to feed ourselves.
“Even though we were living in a remote place, I was lucky to be in a family and community that really valued education.
“People came together to support one child from the area who was doing well at school and had the mindset to succeed – that was me and they sponsored me to go and study in France.
“My career has always been driven by opportunities.
“When I started at university in Lille, my first idea was simply to survive. In 2001 it was the time of the dot com boom and so I thought I should study IT.
“I’d never touched a computer before and programming was a completely different language, so I struggled a lot.
“I was stronger in physics, so I decided to study that for two years before going on to an engineering school to study for a masters because I thought I would be able to get a job.
“I actually started my career in the aerospace industry designing structures for aircraft, which was great but I realised we were not ready to start building planes in my village back home, so I started looking into what I could do for my community.”
Daniel went back to education, studying for an MBA in Paris before getting a job with Société Générale as a derivatives analyst in the French capital.
While working in banking, he was continuing to support his community via his personal income before a tragic event brought with it major change.
“In 2012, my dad passed away, but two months before he’d told me I would have to be the one to support the community,” said Daniel.
“That was shocking, because I’m the second youngest of 16 children – I wondered how I could manage to lead the community.
“He said leadership wasn’t about age or money and he reassured me that I was the one they would listen to.
“Luckily the tradition of respect is structured in such a way that when I talk with my siblings, I will give the older ones respect, but that when I put my leader’s hat on, they will listen.”
Daniel’s father, Djoumessi, had a long history of fighting poverty in Cameroon, supporting local farmers and encouraging them to send their kids to school – leading by example with his own children.
Following his father’s death, Daniel founded a charity called AMSDM (Association Moh Soh Djoumessi Mathias), which aims to promote education and reduce poverty locally in Cameroon.
He also relocated to London, a city he believed would enable him to both pursue his career in finance and banking as well as explore business.
the birth of Amero
“Using just my personal income to support people wasn’t sustainable,” said Daniel.
“I was thinking about what else we could do and I realised one of the great things we produce in Cameroon is coffee.
“I thought that if we could get that product into the right markets we could do great things.
“The best way to help people in poverty is not to give them a fish but to teach them how to fish – that’s why I decided to go back to farming.
“Initially the community was shocked when I explained what I wanted to do because the coffee price had dropped and most of the farmers had moved away from it as a crop.
“They wanted to know why, but I could see the demand and now the price has picked back up and is at an all-time peak.”
In the meantime, Daniel got a job with JP Morgan in 2018 and began working in Canary Wharf, deciding to move into his Vertus apartment in 2020 to remove his commute and because of the promise of community.
“I was maybe the first or second resident to move in and it was very convenient, but a month later we went into lockdown,” he said.
“The great thing was that we had that sense of community – we were a small crew living here at that time, but we spent a lot of time together even though we were working very hard and we made our own bubble.
“In the meantime, Canary Wharf Group realised I was into coffee – they knew me as a banker, so I told them I was a farmer first.
“They loved the project in Cameroon and asked me how we could make this coffee available to residents at Vertus and that’s how I came up with the idea to create a coffee brand where we would grow the beans, harvest them, process them and ship them to the UK for roasting and distributing.”
grown in Cameroon, sold globally
The result is Amero, named for Cameroon itself, supplying 100% organic arabica beans to the UK market and now more widely.
Daniel said: “The farms in my village and the ones we work with around it are on volcanic soil, which gives the coffee a unique taste.
“We don’t use any fertilisers.
“We sell the roasted coffee online and also the green beans to roasters all around the world with customers in Italy, Germany, Australia and now China.
“Today, 10,000 people in Cameroon now rely on this product and the idea is to invest more money and expand our production capacity.
“I have my own farm, which is around 250 hectares and every year I increase that. We support many of the small farmers as well.
“My ambition is to bring more and more on board to support a million people, to give them a reliable income so they can send their children to school and to the hospital when they are sick.
“It’s the best way to have an impact on the community. I come from a different way of working – I’m not just focussing on my day-to-day job with the bank.
“That’s why I do a lot of talking to share my experience and show them how, wherever you are, it’s important to support your local economy.
“It’s not just about poverty in Cameroon but about people here and in France too.
“It’s something we can all do everywhere.
“My success in life has been the result of the community coming together and it’s important to keep that in mind – it’s only as a team that you can deliver results.
“That’s just as important for my career in banking and why JP Morgan has been so supportive.
“Banking has given me exposure and the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people, from whom I’ve learnt a lot.
“Everything I’ve learnt, I’ve applied to what we’re doing with Amero.
“In the same way, I bring my own personal leadership experiences from the community to the bank. It’s a win-win.
“I never dreamed my life would be like this – I grew up in a place where I couldn’t imagine this.
“Today I can travel anywhere in the world because of that vision of community and what I’ve achieved today means I can come back and help the younger generation to achieve and to grow.
“I hope they’ll do a lot more than I did, because they can now have the resources I didn’t have 40 years ago and I want to make sure they are available for them.
“My idea is to explain to them that the first thing is to dream and then to have purpose and objectives to achieve.
“Then I hope they will fly by themselves.
“It’s also about communicating to businesses and investors that the future of investment is to have a social impact as well as making money.
“That’s very important and it’s something organisations can highlight to their clients, shareholders and employees – every single person connected to it because they will all take something from it and understand the impact they are having.”
Canary Wharf – the ideal base
Daniel said that while Amero’s growth might mean he has to make a choice in the future between banking and farming, right now Canary Wharf was playing a key role in his life.
He said: “It gives me all the resources I need to be able to continue my mission, which is fighting poverty everywhere I find it.
“The environment here is great and I feel at home.
“I’m a runner – I do 10k three times a week – and I love the connection with the water here.
“It makes me feel relaxed every day and reminds me of the lake we have on the farm.”
key details: Amero
You can find out more about Amero and buy its products on the brand’s website here.
Read more: Artship to sail to the Isle Of Dogs
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