The Acka’a–Hitchman Foundation was not born from a policy brief or a funding opportunity. It was born from love — a daughter’s determination to honour the legacy of her parents through something that would outlast grief and become generative for generations.
Its roots run deep into the soil of Adikpo, Usar District — the birthplace of its founder’s late father, Chief J.K. Acka’a. The story of how he came to be educated in London, and how an entire district made that possible through an act of collective generosity, is the founding spirit of everything ACES is built to do. See “Why Adikpo” below.
ACES is not a stipend programme. It is not temporary employment dressed in development language. It is a structured enterprise mobility framework — a five-tier progression model that integrates environmental work, certified skills development, and income growth into a single coherent pathway from participation to ownership.
Participants do not simply receive wages. They receive formation. They advance through documented competency benchmarks. They gain certification. And at the highest tier, they graduate into independent micro-enterprises — equipped with tools, supplier access, business registration support, and a sales channel — not a certificate of completion with nowhere to go.
Adikpo and the surrounding communities of Usar District face intersecting challenges: unmanaged waste disposal degrading the local environment, women and youth locked in informal economic activity with no structured pathway upward, and soil health declining in areas where agriculture remains a primary livelihood.
These are not isolated problems. They are symptoms of a deeper structural absence — the lack of a local institution capable of converting community assets into community wealth. ACES is designed to become that institution, beginning with a 12-month demonstration that generates the evidence, the systems, and the leadership required to replicate at scale.
Known as the Food Basket of the Nation, Benue State sits in north-central Nigeria, home to the Tiv, Idoma, and Igede peoples. With fertile river valleys, significant agricultural potential, and a population of over six million, Benue has the resources to sustain thriving communities — yet structural gaps in enterprise, waste management, and income mobility persist at the grassroots level. It is precisely this gap between potential and reality that ACES is designed to close.
Usar District lies within Kwande Local Government Area in the southeast of Benue State — a region rooted in Tiv community life, agricultural tradition, and deep networks of mutual obligation. It is away from the urban centre of Makurdi, which makes it a deliberate choice: the communities here have sustained themselves through collective action and informal enterprise for generations, yet have rarely been the primary focus of structured development investment. ACES begins here, not in spite of the distance from the capital, but because of it.
Adikpo is the town where Chief J.K. Acka’a was born. In the 1950s, his relative — the royal District Head of Usar — made an extraordinary decision. Believing in the potential of a young man who wished to be educated in London but had no means to get there, he went door to door across Usar District, imposing a levy on every household and collecting it himself — not because he had to, but because he chose to. That act of collective investment sent a young man to London, where he met a woman named Verdie Annitta Hitchman, built a life, and raised a family.
Chief Acka’a became one of the first Black African male pioneer nurses in the formation of the NHS in post-war Britain — a quiet but significant mark on the history of a nation rebuilding itself. Verdie Annitta was also a nurse. In time, true to the promise that Usar District had collectively invested in, they returned home together.
Together they founded Viewpoint Medical Centre — a state-of-the-art facility that, at its time, was among the finest in the region. It served not only the indigenes of Benue State but drew patients from neighbouring states too, attending to thousands of people in need over many years, until Chief Acka’a’s passing.
Both parents have now passed. The Acka’a–Hitchman Foundation was formed to complete the cycle — to return what Usar gave, multiplied. Not as charity, but as structured opportunity: enterprise pathways, certified skills, and income mobility for the women, youth, and workers of the very district that once, quietly and collectively, changed everything.
After 12 months of documented success, the full ACES governance handbook, certification standards, procurement templates, and income progression framework can be replicated in other wards within Usar District, other LGAs within Benue State, and other Nigerian states — with contextual adaptation but no structural redesign.
Phase 2 adds Popping Corn Maize, 1121 Basmati Rice value chains, rice chaff-plastic-sand roofing panels, and digitised enterprise dashboards — deepening income streams without increasing governance complexity.
Within a single territory: additional depots, more participants, additional micro-enterprise clusters, and parallel agricultural operations. Scale through density, not only geography.
| Indicator | Definition | Formula | Source | Cadence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participants enrolled | Registered participants with a completed enrolment record. | COUNT(participants WHERE status = active) | Participants register | Live | Verified at registration. |
| Women enrolled | Enrolled participants recorded as women (verified at registration, not drop-in self-ID). | COUNT(participants WHERE gender = female AND enrolled) | Participants register | Live | Reported as aggregate only. |
| Active earners | Participants who received at least one verified payment in the current month. | COUNT(DISTINCT collectorId WHERE collection.status = paid AND month = current) | Collector payments | Monthly | Resets each month. |
| Waste diverted (kg) | Material received AND accepted at the operation centre — i.e. kept out of open dumping/burning. Excludes rejected loads. | SUM(accepted kg) = SUM(organic+paper+plastic+metal+glass) − rejected | Home weigh-ins | Cumulative | “Diverted” = accepted at centre, not merely collected. |
| Contamination / rejection rate (%) | Share of delivered weight rejected at QC for contamination or poor sorting. | SUM(rejected kg) ÷ SUM(accepted + rejected kg) × 100 | Home weigh-ins | Per period | Lower is better; drives the sort-quality coaching. |
| Sort-quality score (avg) | Mean QC sort score on accepted loads; this scales participant pay. | MEAN(sortScore) on accepted collections | Home weigh-ins / QC | Per period | 1–5 scale; below threshold reduces pay. |
| Compost produced (kg / bags) | Finished, cured compost output ready for use. | SUM(finished compost kg); bags = finished kg ÷ bag size | Production log | Per batch | Counted only when cured, not at intake. |
| Compost bags sold | Bags sold to customers (distinct from free-trial bags). | SUM(sales bag qty WHERE type = sale) | Sales receipts / depot | Cumulative | Free-trial bags tracked separately. |
| Income generated (₦) | Verified sales revenue paid into the operating company. | SUM(verified sales revenue) | Depot sales / reconciliation | Per period | Matched to uploaded receipts. |
| Participant earnings paid (₦) | Total paid to participants for accepted material. | SUM(amount paid WHERE collection.status = paid) | Collector payments | Per period | Single-rate or per-material per pay mode. |
| Training completions | Participants completing a defined training module or level. | COUNT(training_sessions WHERE completed) | Training records | Cumulative | Tied to level progression. |
| Level progression (L1–L5) | Count of participants at each pathway level. | COUNT(participants) GROUP BY level | Participants register | Live | L1 Resource Steward → L5 Regeneration Manager. |
| Level 5 graduates | Participants certified at Level 5 (Community Regeneration Manager). | COUNT(participants WHERE level = 5 AND certified) | Certificates | Cumulative | L4 is a valid exit point; not all reach L5. |
| Certificates issued | Certificates issued, by level, with QR verification. | COUNT(certificates) GROUP BY level | Certificates | Cumulative | Each carries a verifiable QR code. |
| Route efficiency | Accepted weight per active route per collection period. | SUM(accepted kg) ÷ active routes | Weigh-ins + Route Planner | Per period | Higher = denser, more efficient routes. |
| Safeguarding declarations | Signed safeguarding declarations among staff/participants. | COUNT(declarations WHERE signed) | Institutional records | Live | Count only — no case details shown. |
| Registered asset value (₦) | Total value of durable assets in the register. | SUM(qty × unitValue) WHERE type = asset | Stock & Asset Register | Live | Equipment, devices, tools. |
| Stock on hand | Current stock quantities with low-stock flag. | qty per item; low if qty ≤ reorder level | Stock & Asset Register / depot | Live | Low-stock items flagged amber. |
| Date | Batch # | Bags | Bag (kg) | Grade | By |
|---|
| Ref / date | Type | Customer | Bags | Fulfilment | Status | Payment / feedback |
|---|
| Date | Depot | Bags | Product | Delivered by | Accepted | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No deliveries recorded yet. | ||||||
| Date | Depot | Customer | Bags | Amount (₦) | Payment | Receipt | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No sales recorded yet. | |||||||
| Reg ID | Name | Ward | Gender | Cohort | Stage | Level | Level 1 training |
|---|
| Code | Type | Cluster | Adults / Residents | Enrolled | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No sources yet. Click “Add Source” to enrol a home or business. | |||||
| ID | Gender | Age | Team / Route | Depot | Supervisor | Current Tier | Phase | Monthly Income (₦) | Lifecycle Status | Enrolled | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No participants registered yet. Click "Add Participant" to begin. | |||||||||||
| ID | Name | Role | Phone | Actions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No participant contacts yet. | |||||
| Code | Name / Company | Type | Phone | Location | Actions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No source contacts yet. | ||||||
| Material | C:N (book value) | Amount (kg or %) |
|---|
| Date | Batch № | Batch | C:N | Grade | Mix & readings | Fix next batch |
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| Product / Service | Category | Price (₦) | On order form | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | ||||
| Category | Date | Participant | Customer | Product | Qty | Amount (₦) | Fulfilment | Delivery address | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||||||||
| Date | Home | Amount (₦) | Based on (kg) | Paid by | Notes | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No direct-to-home payments recorded yet. | ||||||
Everyone starts as a Resource Steward and can grow, step by step, into a business owner. Each level adds new ways to earn while keeping the ones before it. Progression is a choice, not a conveyor belt — a participant can add a single activity, stack several, or stay where they are.
Level 1 — Resource Steward. Collects source-separated waste from enrolled homes and businesses, tagging each bag with the source’s route QR, and brings it to the operations centre. Earns on the verified weight of clean, accepted material. Material is weighed either as a resident drop-off or a participant pickup — the weight that counts is always the verified weight at the centre.
Level 2 — Resource Recovery Partner. Adds earning options on top of collection: sell bags of Heritage Soil compost from the depot, sell nursery plants to customers (sell → order from the Nursery Manager → upload the customer's receipt), and pick up the permeable block-paving skill — trained and assessed to the ACES Block Production SOP (international standard), repeated until passed. At Level 2 the Nursery Manager plans the garden-maintenance routes for the plants sold; the participant focuses on selling and service delivery.
Level 3 — Circular Steward. Keeps earlier streams and takes on more responsibility: as part of their business-module training the participant now plans and optimises their own garden-maintenance routes for their maintenance customers (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly as agreed). May also add block-laying services and recycled-goods sales once those streams are live.
Level 4 — Community Resource Partner. Takes on a management or wholesale track: Compost Depot Manager, Beautification / Garden-maintenance Manager (runs maintenance services for a cluster), or Block-laying Service Manager; and nursery operators are expected to sell nursery plants in bulk / wholesale at this level. They mentor those behind them and may graduate to run their own business under an ACES standards agreement or independently. Participants who focus on garden / nursery work can choose to exit the programme at Level 4 — there is no Level 5 requirement for them.
Level 5 — Community Regeneration Manager (optional). An optional senior step for proven managers overseeing several depots in a region for a year and mentoring depot managers beneath them. It is not required to "complete" the programme — Level 4 is a full, valid exit, especially for garden-focused graduates.
How it’s tracked: each participant has a current level on their record and portal; optional activities, the Level 4 management role, and graduation status are set by a supervisor (participants see but don’t change their own); completed levels earn certificates/badges.
Set-up: enrol each home/business as a Source with a GPS location (Participants → Add Source), then assign it to a cluster (A, B, C…). Without a location a stop won’t appear on the map.
In the Route Planner: the map groups stops by cluster colour, numbers them 1, 2, 3… in a suggested visiting order, and joins them with a dashed line. Each cluster can have several participants — add them from “+ add participant…”, remove with the ×. Set four targets per cluster: collection day, target homes, target kg/week, and max contamination %.
Supervisor access: an admin can scope a supervisor to specific clusters (Users page → “Project Supervisors — route access”). They then edit only their clusters; everyone else’s routes are view-only for them.
Reading the numbers:
Distances are straight-line estimates and the stop order is a quick “nearest-next” suggestion — treat km and kg/km as planning indicators, not exact road mileage.
Onboarding a depot manager: they already have a login from when they were a participant. Make sure their email is on their participant record, set their user role to Depot Manager (Users page), then link them to their depot in Depot Operations. They’ll then see only their own depot, and can accept & sell but not edit.
Scheduling a delivery & the QR — where and who:
Recording a sale: “+ Record sale” → bags, price, customer, and how it was paid. Customers are encouraged to pay into the operating company’s account with the receipt reference entered/uploaded; cash is banked by the manager and the pay-in receipt uploaded. Sales reduce stock.
Stock & reorder: In stock = accepted − sold. A low-stock alert appears at the depot’s reorder level (default 20 bags) — the manager raises the next delivery with their supervisor.
Reconciliation: each depot card shows Delivered, Accepted, Sold, In stock, Revenue and Cash owed, with amber/red flags where stock or cash doesn’t add up — a prompt to discuss, not blame.
| Date | Phase | Module / Title | Facilitator | Team / Route | Attendance | Duration | Authorised By | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No training sessions logged yet. | ||||||||
| Date | Participant | Phase | From Tier | To Tier | Score | Compliance | Authorised By | IWES Validation | Notes | Lifecycle Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No tier advancements recorded. | ||||||||||
| Month | Participant | Team / Route | Module Assessed | Training Title Completed | Facilitator | Attendance % | Waste Vol. | Sales Vol. | Ledger Acc. | Env. Compliance | Conduct | Overall Score | Tier Eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No scorecards submitted. | |||||||||||||
| Cert No. | Participant | Level | Issued Date | Score | IWES Validated | Issued By | Status | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No certificates issued yet. | ||||||||
| Month | Grant / funder | Theme | Best route | Notes |
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| Title | Funder | Focus | Amount | Deadline | Status | Link | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No opportunities tracked yet. Click + Add Opportunity to get started, or browse the curated sources below for ideas. | |||||||
| When | User | Role | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| No activity recorded yet. | |||
| Name | Role | Section Access | Notes | Invited | Status | Actions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading users... | |||||||
We don’t have our own field data yet — and that’s fine. The job right now is to capture a defensible starting point so future change is believable.
Carbon claims are scrutinised closely, so the golden rule is: claim less than you can prove, and always say which it is.
| Plot / Owner | Type | Walls | Roof | Worst condition | Status | Actions |
|---|
| Household | Route | Location | Facade | Paving | Roof | Trim | Rated |
|---|
| Requestor / site | Type | Road / area | Condition | Area | Charge | Status | Actions |
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