IPAE 2

Created in 2010 initially under the name of ICO and became ICONA in 2020, the Internationale des Céréales et Oléagineux, Nutrition Animale (ICONA) is a Burkinabe company specialized in the manufacture of animal feed.

ICONA is one of the few Burkinabe manufacturers able to provide feed adapted to animals, whatever their species and age. The company is thus particularly competitive, offering an attractive quality/price ratio.

The entrepreneur

Martial SAWADOGO is a French-Burkinabe entrepreneur, doctor in animal nutrition. He has more than 25 years of experience in the feed industry and has been an entrepreneur since 1999.

Partnership with I&P

Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) has committed itself alongside ICONA in order to

• Increase the company's production capacity and enable it to increase its volumes on the local market.
• Support it in strengthening its production equipment, facilities and commercial means (vehicles).
• To formalize, in particular through the setting up of contracts for its employees, their registration with the social security and the setting up of mutual health insurance for the whole staff.

Expected impacts

The partnership between I&P and ICONA should contribute to

• Improving the working conditions and wages of employees.
• Improve the availability of quality feed on the Burkina Faso market. Breeders often have to turn to low quality products. The increase in ICONA's production capacity will make it possible to respond to the supply deficit by offering quality products at an attractive price and will, therefore, have a significant impact on the local value chain.

 Learn more about ICONA

Founded in 2006 by the Malagasy promoter Malala Rabenoro, SOAFIARY is specialized in the sourcing, processing and commercialization of cereals (maize, rice) and leguminous plants (beans, cape peas, lentils, soybeans) on local and international markets. The company employs nearly 200 people, including 88% women.

Backed by a good reputation in this sector, the company begins to diversify its activities in 2017. SOAFIARY has set up a feed mill unit and has also launched the SOADIO project, a contract farming project run in collaboration with the diocese of the Vakinankaratra region, located in the highlands of Madagascar. The company trains the farmers and provides them with the agricultural equipment and inputs needed to operate the 4,100 hectares of land owned by the Diocese, and then buys the entire production. This project is a response to the challenges of traceability and product quality.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

The company was founded by Malala Rabenoro. With a background in marketing, Malala previously worked for an Microfinance Institution (MFI) where she gained more than 15 years of experience in administrative and personnel management. She left her position in 2011 to dedicate herself fully to SOAFIARY, where she manages the marketing, procurement and investor relations aspects of the business.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

Soafiary is supported by the fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2). The partnership aims to:

⇒ Reviving the company's historical activity

⇒ Improving the quality management system

⇒ Supporting the company in the certification and standardization process (HACCP and Bio)

⇒ Developing the feed mill unit

⇒ Developing the SOADIO project

⇒ Strengthening corporate governance, Participating in management capacity building

⇒ Advising and supporting the company in its relations with investors and strategic third parties

EXPECTED IMPACTS

⇒ Promoting a committed female promoter

⇒ Creating jobs for a disadvantaged population with low education levels

⇒ Providing support to employees on literacy and hygiene-related issues

⇒ Supporting farmers through the SOADIO project

• Inclusion of small producers in the value chain
• Improving the living conditions of small producers

New Crystal Health Services (NCHS) is Ghana’s leading private health care group dedicated to the urban poor. From its modest beginnings in a four-bedroom facility in 2003, New Crystal now serves an average of 300,000 customers per year through a chain of six networked clinics, a diagnostic services company and a pharmaceutical wholesale and retail company. NCHS provides general consulting services in health care, surgery, optics, dental care and other diversified health services.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor is a medical doctor and an entrepreneur. After completing University of Ghana Medical School in 1999, he completed his mandatory housemanship and then decided to work at Greenshield Clinic in Sefwi-Wiawso, a rural town in the Western region of Ghana. During his Greenshield experience, the founder of the clinic entrusted Dr. Wisdom with overall management responsibility, which helped him to later birth the idea of New Crystal in 2003. He holds an MBA from the University of Ghana Business School in Entrepreneurial Management. Dr. Wisdom has been the primary driver of New Crystal’s growth to date.

Watch an interview with the promoter, Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P’s investment in New Crystal aims to:

• Upgrade the infrastructure of the New Crystal network of clinics to enable the continued provision of affordable, more quality health care to underserved communities

• Strenghten governance practices and organizational structure to support the sustainability of the business

EXPECTED IMPACT

• Access to affordable and quality health care

• Provision of free health care to all the staff of the clinics

• Financing of certifications and regular training of the staff

• Improved waste management methods

• Possibility of supplying solar energy to clinics

Rensource is a distributed energy services company that delivers power and value-added services to SME clusters in Nigeria through ring-fenced, solar powered micro-utilities. In 2018, the company launched its first micro-utility project with financial backing from Paris-based NEoT Capital through its NEoT Offgrid Africa investment platform. The project is located at the Sabon Gari Market in Kano State and today provides clean, affordable and reliable energy to over 4,000 merchants, with an additional 8,000 set to go live by Q3 2019.

Rensource is Nigeria’s fastest growing provider of off-grid power. Over the next two years, the company seeks to rollout 11 additional micro-utility projects that have already been contracted and partially developed in some cases.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Ademola “Demmy” Adesina is a Nigerian entrepreneur with over 12 years’ experience across Africa, USA and Europe. He has focused on building or turning around early and growth stage enterprises for much of his career.

Ademola has led business development and corporate strategy for Aquifer, a London based investment company (Sainsbury Family Office). He joined Aquifer from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where he was a founding member of the Innovation for Development & Impact Investing initiatives that birthed the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Demmy began his career as an investment banker with JP Morgan.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P’s investment in Rensource aims to:

• Support the full deployment of additional micro-utilities to potentially reach over 200,000 end users in Nigeria by 2022

EXPECTED IMPACT

• Significant contribution to solving power crisis in Nigeria

CoinAfrique is a 100% mobile community platform designed to buy and sell products simply.

Created in 2015, CoinAfrique aims to become the leader in online ads between individuals in French-speaking Africa. To date, CoinAfrique has over 500,000 downloads and more than 100,000 active users.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Matthias Papet is the founder and President of CoinAfrique. An expert in new technologies and e-commerce, he managed many sites in the field of mail order, beauty and travel, before working at Google France as Head of Travel.

Eric Genêtre is the Managing Director of CoinAfrique, in charge of the administrative and financial aspects of the company. During his career, he has managed major projects in the fields of construction, real estate and concessions, in France and abroad. In particular, he worked as Managing Director of Vinci Concession's subsidiary in Slovakia.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed to working with CoinAfrique to:

• Strengthen local sales teams

MAIN IMPACTS

• A technical project with a strong growth potential
• An African development team interested in the company's capital
• Creation of local employment opportunities in several French-speaking African countries

The medical-surgical clinic PROCREA, based in Abidjan, began operating in 2008. It specializes in the field of reproductive health and is the leader in Côte d’Ivoire in Assisted Reproductive Health Care (AMP), a technique that treats people with infertility issues and helps them to achieve parenthood.

PROCRÉA also provides mother-child care, including obstetrical gynecology, neonatology (newborn care), and pediatrics.

The vision of PROCREA's promoters is to popularize the practice of MAP in order to make it accessible to a greater number of people. The clinic aims to become one of the leaders in the sector in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa, complying with the requirements and standards of the international medical sector. In ten years of activity, the clinic has already accompanied more than 500 couples.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

PROCRÉA was created in 2006 under the initiative of Dr. Myriam Kadio-Morokro Brou, principal promoter, and Professor Marie-Laure Hauhouot Attoumgbré, co-promoter, both of whom are recognized experts in Côte d'Ivoire in the fields of biology and reproductive sciences. Later they were joined by 3 other renowned health professionals in Côte d'Ivoire.

After obtaining her bachelor's degree in France, Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou joined the Faculty of Medicine in Abidjan where she graduated in 2001 and did a thesis on reproductive biology. Passionate about the subject, she then returned to France to complete her studies in reproductive biology, sterility therapy, molecular cytogenetics and male sterility. During her stay in France she worked in several hospitals, hospitals and laboratories.

Back in Côte d'Ivoire in 2005, she suggested to her friend Prof Attoumgbré to join her in the PROCREA clinic project, which they founded in 2006. PROCREA’s activities officially started in 2008.

► To know more, discover the interview of Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P 

I&P committed alongside with PROCRÉA to:

• Restructure the project to focus on the medical offer dedicated to reproduction

• Financing and supporting the construction of a new, larger clinic, better adapted to PROCRÉA's needs and designed in an environmentally friendly way (treatment of medical waste, rainwater recovery, reduction in energy consumption, etc.)

• Support the management team in the running of the clinic

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Make reproductive health care available to the greatest number of people

• Improve the quality of care

• Increase the clinic's capacity