Entrepreneur's story : Khadidiatou Nakoulima, NEST (Sénégal)

Khadidiatou Nakoulima has followed a particularly interesting career path. Soon after her graduation, Khadidiatou decides, with her brother, to launch a medical network for Women and Children in Senegal. The project materialized in 2011 with the opening of a first medical platform, followed by the opening of a maternity ward in 2013.

Several members of her family worked in the medical field (her father is a renowned pediatrician in Senegal), and Khadidiatou Nakoulima clearly remembers the stories of these women who had lost confidence in the Senegalese medical system, because of a lack of attention or resources. These stories would serve as a guideline and key driver for action for NEST: through the establishment of this medical network, the objective is to ensure a complete monitoring of the women and young children, during and after pregnancy.

Khady is 24 when she starts working on this project. Just graduated from Ecole des Mines in Paris, she decided to turned to entrepreneurship while most of her classmates started working for large corporations or consulting firms. A challenging but thoughtful choice: during her studies, she notably took the course Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which gave her the opportunity to meet some twenty entrepreneurs and investors. But the truly decisive factor was the discovery of an innovate network of maternity hospitals settled in India. With the idea of replicating this model in Senegal in mind, Khadidiatou decides to dedicate herself entirely to NEST: meeting with professionals, working experience in India, studies on the Senegalese health system… Months of work were necessary to launch NEST. But despite the challenges, Khady underlines the “great satisfaction to give a real meaning to my work and to have a concrete impact on the ground”

Interview

First of all, let's consider the very beginning of the project: how did you get the idea? What were your motivations? 

While he was studying in the United States, my brother Ousseynou found out about Lifespring Hospitals, a private chain of maternity hospitals settled in India offering quality and accessible health service to lower income and middle-classes women and children. Inspired by the enterprise and by other similar examples, he was willing to reproduce this model in Senegal, where the conditions for childbirth are often quite precarious.

When I graduated from Ecole des Mines in 2009, I decided to take part of the project. The first thing we had to do was to build a viable business plan, with the fundamental objective of conciliating profitability and social impact objectives.

With that objective in mind, I participated to the Global Social Venture Competition. We made it to the final round and we arrived at the 4^th position, among more than 500 projects, which enabled us to expose our business plan to investors and entrepeneurs.  Afterwards, I spent three months at Lifespring Hospitals in India to study their model.

The social incubator Antropia has supported our project during the first three years. Building on these experiences and their support, we were able to start our activities in June 2011. We opened  a clinic in November 2013. 

How did you first met I&P? What have you learnt from this partnership? 

I first met I&P during a special meeting on social entrepreneurship organized by BNP Paribas. Soon I was invited to present my project to Jeremy Hajdenberg, investment director at I&P. Since then, I&P has been actively involved in the implementation of our strategy: feasibility study, market analysis, health sector requirements… As early as 2010, NEST also benefitted from a technical assistance mission.

What I&P's partnership brought us among all over things is a daily and individualized support. It is particularly useful in a context where African entrepreneurs don't always find the expertise and competence needed to get started and grow their businesses.

How do you see the future of NEST? What are your projects on the short and long-term? 

Our first objective is to provide the best quality care for our patients. Since the very beginning of the project, we are endeavoring to comply with the adequate international norms and standards.

On a long-term perspective, we plan to expand our activities to the urban and peri-urban areas that experience a fast economic growth but are still lacking essential health facilities and infrastructure. 

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs? 

I think my best advice would be not to be afraid to share your ideas: discussing about your project is the best way to get advice from professionals and bring your vision to life.