I&P Accélération

Faso Elevage Bio is a Burkinabe company specialized in the production of breeding materials. This young company has progressively developed five activities aimed at poultry farmers: production and commercialization of chicks and breeding equipment (incubators, cages, brooders, etc.), implementation of a farm monitoring system, rent of livestock buildings and training of poultry farmers on good breeding practices.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Faso Elevage Bio was created by Abdoul-Wakil Faïçal PALENFO when he was a young student entrepreneur. Before starting his own business, Mr. PALENFO was a livestock consultant for NGOs and companies like Ferm'Afrik. He holds a professional master's degree in animal production from the University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (USTA) in Ouagadougou.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P AND SINERGI BURKINA

Faso Elevage Bio is supported by I&P and Sinergi Burkina through I&P Acceleration in Sahel. The support will allow the company to : 

• Strengthen the chick production capacity
• Improve the quality of the egg brooding machines
• Strengthen the company's market presence
• Strengthen the structuring and the management system (SIG)

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Creation and consolidation of jobs
• Increase the local supply of chicks
• Valuation of local products 
• Establishment of good governance

About Sinergi Burkina

Created in 2014, Sinergi Burkina is the first impact investment fund dedicated to financing and supporting SMEs and start-ups in Burkina Faso. Headed by Job Zongo, Sinergi Burkina is the second investment fund sponsored by Investisseurs & Partenaires as part of the I&P Développement 2 fund. The fund network currently includes a fund in Niger (Sinergi Niger), Côte d'Ivoire (Comoé Capital), Senegal (Teranga Capital) and Madagascar (Miarakap).  → To learn more about Sinergi Burkina​

The Lycée Privé Technique Moderne de Koudougou (LTMK) is a technical secondary school created in 2017, located in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, about a hundred kilometers from Ouagadougou.

The school has 207 students and offers initial training (BEP and BAC) in the fields of electronics, civil engineering and electrical engineering. The school will open in 2021-2022, a cycle of classical secondary education from the 6th to the 10th grade.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Mr. KABORE is a 37 year old Burkinabé, holder of a DUT in commercial management and a Master in Marketing and Business Intelligence from the African Institute of Management (IAM Ouaga). After fifteen years of experience in teaching and recruitment, he opened the Institut Supérieur de l'Eau, du Bâtiment et de l'Energie à Ouagadougou (ISEBE) in 2013, a training center based in Ouagadougou that offers training in civil engineering, geology and energy engineering. In 2017, three years after the opening of ISEBE, Mr. KABORE decided to open LTMK with the main objective of providing students with tools for entrepreneurship or giving them a solid foundation before entering a higher education institution. 

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

LTMK is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel program dedicated to education and employment (IP2E).

EXPECTED IMPACTS

The funding and support provided to LTMK aims at :

• The location, installation and the supply of 10 classrooms for the opening of a classical teaching cycle 
• The purchase of materials for equipments of a laboratory of practical work (TP)
• The funding of the working capital requirement

Ecofood is a Cameroonian company that operates in mass catering and started its activities with school catering and life base services. Today, it feeds more than 1500 students a day in the most prestigious primary and secondary schools in Yaoundé.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Stéphane NKONTCHOU is the founder of Ecofood. He grew up in Cameroon and then continued his studies in France, with two master's degrees in Mechanics from the Pierre et Marie Curie University and Arts et Métiers. After ten years of experience in industrial project management, he decided to come back to Cameroon to take care of a family business of which he became the General Manager. After this experience, he decided to found Ecofood.

THE PURPOSE OF THE FUNDING

Ecofood is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel, funded by the European Union.

The objectives of the funding are : 

• to acquire 3 vehicles for the distribution of meals in schools
• the fitting out of the new premises
• the implementation of an information system
• the preparation and execution of the marketing and communication strategy

Fisco is a Cameroonian company that markets household products (detergents, bleach, etc.) and para-pharmaceutical products (hydro-alcoholic gels, alcohol, etc.). The company has an artisanal production unit in Bonabéri, in Douala and has activities that now extend to 3 regions of the country (Littoral, Centre, North).

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Fisco was created by Joel Sikam, a Cameroonian with a degree in finance (Bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas). After starting his career in the United States in equity and wealth management with family offices, he returned and founded his own company. Joël Sikam is also very active in the GICAM which is the employers' association of Cameroon.

PURPOSE OF THE FUNDING

Fisco is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel. The funding granted will upgrade in safety and quality  by financing the facilities and the acquisition of the necessary equipment. The program will also allow the company to finance the acquisition of a new vehicle for distribution and to support the company in the execution of its communication strategy. 

Created in 2018 by a talented young Malagasy entrepreneur, Sayna is a startup specialized in digital training and outsourcing of IT projects, carried out by African developers via a micro-tasking platform.

Sayna intends to address a twofold problem: the lack of training in the digital sector in Africa, and the gap between the supply of digital talent and the growing demand of companies in the context of their digital transformation.

Sayna offers digital skills training and provides solutions that allow the students to enter the job market. To date, Sayna has trained nearly 200 students.

Today, Sayna aims to develop a tech startup model based on two pillars:

⇒ A paying online training platform for learners that allows them to follow, evaluate and validate their learning, but also to have access to company IT projects corresponding to the learning they have validated during their training.

⇒ A "microtasking" platform that allows companies to outsource their IT projects more efficiently, which are divided into distributed micro-tasks and assigned to freelance developers registered on the platform.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

The promoter of the project, Matina Razafimahefa, is a young Malagasy entrepreneur of 23 years old, winner of several awards. At 20 years old, she decided to stop her studies to devote herself fully to the deployment of the project and has surrounded herself with advisors and experienced business angels.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P ACCELERATION TECHNOLOGIES AND MIARAKAP

Sayna is financed and supported by I&P Acceleration Technologies, a €2.5 million program aimed at financing and supporting fifteen digital start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) through the Digital Africa initiative.

As such, Sayna benefits from a €100,000 repayable advance from the I&P Acceleration Technologies program to :

⇒— Finalize and launch the micro tasking platform

—⇒ Roll out the training programs in partnership with a leading player in Bootcamp training, Holberton (Silicon Valley)

⇒ Train 200 students by the end of 2021

NEXT STEPS AND EXPECTED IMPACTS

Sayna's ambition is to :

—• Enable 8,000 people in Africa to enter the digital industry through its training and have more than 3,500 people working on its micro task platform.

•— Meet the IT needs of 300 SMEs and start-ups in the French-speaking world.

—• Complete a Series A fundraising of approximately €3 million in 2022 to accelerate growth and finance a pan-African expansion in West Africa.

Salma is a company specialized in agro-industry. It produces feed for livestock (sheep, cattle, goats) based on fodder, agro-industrial products and minerals.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Salma was created by Mrs. Nafissa Hamidou ABDOULAYE. She holds a state diploma in midwifery and a higher technician diploma in public health, a bachelor's degree in epidemiology and biostatistics and a master's degree in project management. She benefits from the expertise and permanent technical support of INRAN researchers in the implementation of her project.

ABOUT SINERGI 

SINERGI S.A. is a private investment company created in 2006 and supported by I&P with a group of key individual and institutional shareholders in the Nigerien and international SME support landscape. Headed by Ibrahima Djibo, its objective is to contribute to the economic and social development of Niger through the promotion of entrepreneurship and the development of SMEs. SINERGI S.A. provides the means for entrepreneurs in Niger to achieve their growth projects by providing long-term financing and local support.  → Find out more about Sinergi

ABOUT USAID PROGRAM

Investisseurs & Partenaires and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched in 2016 an innovative acceleration program for start-ups in Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal. The partnership is designed to support high-potential start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in order to facilitate their access to financing in a region where the ecosystem supporting entrepreneurship is still poorly developed. → Click here to find out more