Industry

The Société de Fabrication du Coton Burkinabè (SOFACOB) is a company that transforms local cotton fibre into hydrophilic cotton for medical use. Created in 2016, SOFACOB begins to impose itself on a market that was once driven by imports. The company employs about twenty people, 75% of whom are women assigned to packaging tasks.

SOFACOB is accompanied by Sinergi Burkina since 2019 as part of the Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) program in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

THE ENTREPRENEUR

SOFACOB was created by Dr Céline KOBEANE, senior pharmacist of the Savannah Pharmacy, and graduate of the University of Ouagadougou. Thanks to her experience, she masters the supply circuit of medicines and medical consumables. After training in China, she aims to put all cotton-based medical consumables on the local medical market.

CONTRIBUTION OF SINERGI BURKINA

The purpose of the accompaniment can be summarized in 3 points:

• testing new products intended for the mass distribution market
• structure the company's accounting department
• strengthen the company's working capital requirement

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). → Sinergi Burkina website.

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 learn more. 

Carrières et Chaux du Mali (CCM) is a Malian company specialized in the production and commercialization of quicklime and agricultural lime.

The company has access a high quality landform deposit of more than 70 million tons of raw material in its various forms. This supply will serve gold mining, agriculture, sanitation, and construction industries.

The quarry and the factory are based in Karaga (340 km west of Bamako in the region of Kayes). The company significantly participates to the economic growth of this area: more than 70% of the employees of the production site come from Karaga area.

The products will be offered in Mali and in the sub-region (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Ghana).

Carrières et Chaux du Mali initially beneffitted from the support of Crossboundary, as part of a partnership set with the US Agency USAID. Crossboundary aims to unlock the power of private capital to impact underserved markets. The firm has broad experience providing opportunity sourcing, due diligence, transaction advisory and investment expertise in sub-Saharan Africa. Crossboundary has provided investment support and contributed to the structuration of CCM. To read more on the partnership with USAID, click here →

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Madani Diallo, founder and director of CCM, stands as one the pioneer actors of the gold industry in West Africa. Trained as geochemist and mineralogist, Madani has more than years of experience in the mining sector. He held executive functions in major mining companies such as BHP Billiton and Anglogold Ashanti. He led mining exploration team, leading to the discovery of several gold mines.

Madani is a member of the board of directors of several institutions (Trust Bank in Ghana, International Bank of Burkina Faso)

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Carrières et Chaux du Mali to:

• Support the structuration of the company

• Support CCM in obtaining ISO standards 18001 and 14001

IMPACTS

• Substitution to imports

• Develop a structuring industry in the country and the sub-region

• Create more than 80 formal jobs