Construction

OHEL International is an Ivorian construction company founded with the ambition to meet the growing demand for housing in Côte d’Ivoire while integrating an environmentally friendly approach. Its core expertise lies in the use of Stabilized Compressed Earth Blocks (BTCS), made from lateritic soil, sand, and cement, which significantly reduces the carbon footprint of construction.

Over the years, OHEL has built a strong reputation as an eco-friendly construction company thanks to the quality of its projects. The company has completed more than 500 buildings (schools, clinics, sports complexes, villas, apartment buildings, latrines, etc.) and collaborates with individuals, public institutions, private companies, and international organizations.

The entrepreneur

Marina NOBOUT is an Ivorian entrepreneur and the sole shareholder of OHEL. A commercial engineer by training, she began her career in 2001 in the real estate sector (SIEGIM-CI) before holding senior management positions in several security and construction companies.

In 2010, she founded OHEL to address two key challenges:

• The housing deficit in Côte d’Ivoire (estimated at 500,000 units);
• The need for low-carbon solutions in the construction sector.

Her leadership has earned her several distinctions, including the International Marrakech Ecology Award (2016) and the BTCS Leader Award in Côte d’Ivoire (2022).

Partnership with I&P and Comoe Capital

I&P has partnered with Comoé Capital to support OHEL through:

• A reimbursable financing of 129,459,539 FCFA, disbursed in three tranches based on performance KPIs;
• Technical assistance in accounting: implementation of an ERP system, recruitment and training of an accountant, and strengthening of financial reporting;
• ESG and climate support: staff training and enhancement of the environmental impact of BTCS construction;
• Commercial and technical development: design of a marketing strategy and optimization of BTCS brick production through new equipment.

Main impacts

• Climate: reduction of 2.072 tCO₂eq per BTCS house built;
• Gender: woman-led enterprise;
• Social: job creation.

Founded in 2002, DELTA S.A. is a family-owned Senegalese company specializing in sanitation and public works. DELTA provides maintenance of sewerage networks in several areas of the city of Dakar and in the regions of Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Kaolack and Tambacounda. Its interventions include:

• The management and maintenance of wastewater and stormwater networks to ensure the cleaning of pipes, their unclogging and proper maintenance and the connection of wastewater to the collective network;
• The provision of autonomous sanitation services consisting of the collection and transportation of sewage sludge for households and businesses, the cleaning and maintenance of fuel lines (for service stations) and water bodies. This service prevents illegal dumping and its harmful effects on the environment;
• The rental of mobile toilets, during large human gatherings (demonstrations, concerts, religious and traditional ceremonies, etc.) or on construction sites and military bases.

Since 2013, DELTA has also been diversifying its activities in the construction sector. The company offers services for the extension of sewerage networks (drinking water supply, roads, treatment plants) and the construction, renovation and maintenance of buildings (stadiums, agencies, high schools etc.).

THE ENTREPRENEUR

DELTA is headed by Léna Tall, the company's founder and CEO. She has 20 years of experience in sanitation and is the only woman to lead a large company in the sector. Ms. Tall is well known in the sanitation sector. She was President of the Association des Acteurs de l'Assainissement du Sénégal (AAAS) and was named a "Role Model" by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P has committed itself alongside DELTA to:

⇒ Support the company in consolidating its position as a leader in the sanitation sector
⇒ Support it in its desire to expand its activities in the sub-region
⇒ Strengthen the company's governance and human resources
⇒ Set up a management control and stable and efficient financial procedures allowing a better management of the activity

EXPECTED IMPACTS

⇒ Support of a Senegalese female entrepreneur
⇒ Strong job creation: more than 30 full-time jobs
⇒ Strong ESG impact: contribution to the preservation of a healthy environment and to the health of populations by treating wastewater and solid waste

Company website: Delta SA

NJ Prestations is a company specialized in metal, aluminum and stainless steel constructions in Burkina Faso. It mainly produces doors, windows, bay windows and water towers, tanks, tables-benches, and cabinets for schools, institutions and companies.  

THE ENTREPRENEUR

NJ Prestations was created by Mr. Rodrigue NIKIEMA. Holder of a Brevet de Premier Cycle (BEPC) and a Certificat de Qualification Professionnel (CQP) in welding and metallic works, he followed training sessions in metallic construction, aluminium and stainless steel in Ghana and Nigeria, which allowed him to position his company as one of the welding companies mastering at the same time the three raw materials that are aluminium, iron and stainless steel.

I&P AND SINERGI BURKINA'S CONTRIBUTION

NJ Prestations is supported by Sinergi Burkina through I&P Acceleration in Sahel.

The objectives of the partnership are the following:

⇒ Strengthening the company's production capacity 

⇒ Strengthening its competitiveness and market positioning 

⇒ Strengthening its structuring and management system

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​

Normat is a Beninese company specializing in drilling-mining services and civil-use explosive distribution (mainly used in mines, quarries, and some construction sites).

Up to now, granite local quarry workers had to internalize drilling-mining activities because there was no specialized company. Normat is now a reference actor and has won several industrial Beninese actors' trust by offering services that respect international security rules concerning explosive shots (ISO9001/2015 law).
The company was created in 2017, following the split of this drilling-mining activity from the Bhélix company, which exploits various granite quarries in Benin and in which I&P invested in 2009.

The entrepreneur

Narcisse Zolla is a public works engineer and a former consultant in some Dutch cooperation. He has a Master's degree in Management from the Université de Bordeaux.
He also leads the company Bhélix.

Discover the interview of the promoteur of Bhélix and Normat (2019)

Partnership with I&P

I&P is commited to Normat:

• In formalizing this new company;

• In advising Normat to find the right resources and an efficient organization in operations management.

Main impacts

• The emergence of the specialized job of drilling-mining in Benin

• ISO9001/2015 norm accreditation

Founded in Gabon in 2012 by Folly Koussawo with the support of Seydou Béyé, Trianon Homes is a real estate development and construction company with three core businesses: third-party construction, turnkey project design and construction, and real estate development.

From the outset, Trianon Homes took the gamble of positioning itself as the missing link in Gabon's construction industry: a company combining the agility of a small-scale structure with the application of a structured group. Trianon quickly demonstrated the viability of its model, winning over public and private clientele.

After a decade of activity and successful experience in real estate development in Gabon, Trianon is now stepping up its real estate development operations aimed at middle-class families in several African countries: Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Benin. The company's ambition is to respond to the problem of access to property ownership, which is becoming increasingly difficult in African cities, where land prices have risen sharply in recent decades as a result of galloping urbanization.

Today, Trianon has 50 employees, over 200 local subcontractors, 85 completed projects and plans to deliver hundreds of new homes every year for real estate development projects.

The entrepreneur

Folly Koussawo is a Franco-Gabonese entrepreneur in his forties, and has been running the company since its creation in 2012. He graduated from the Ecole Supérieur de Commerce IPAG in Nice, and holds a DESS in real estate from the Sorbonne (Paris). After graduating, he began his career as an auditor with Grant Thornton in France, before joining Kaufman & Broad (K&B), one of France's leading property development groups, for a period of 7 years.

Since June 2023, Folly Koussawo has also been President of the Club Africain des Entrepreneurs, a pan-African organization created in 2016 and bringing together women and men invested in the entrepreneurial adventure and united by a shared commitment to sustainable and responsible development in Africa. 

Words from the new president of the Club Africain des Entrepreneurs

Partnership with I&P

The first partnership between Trianon and I&P dates back to 2014, with initial financing provided through the I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 1 (IPAE1) fund, which enabled the company to structure itself and increase its production capacity (prefabrication unit, wood and metal joinery, equipment fleet).  

This new financing, completed in 2023, will help Trianon take another step forward in the development of its activities, notably real estate development in Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire.

Expected impact

• Access to home ownership and sustainable, quality housing for middle-class African families;  
• Creation of formal jobs;  
• Raising local construction standards.

Sofamac is engaged in the production of clay construction, such as tiles and clay bricks, intended for local use.

Clay production, which was quite common until the end of the 1970s, now offers a real market opportunity. The products show great thermic and time resistance and match an unsatisfied local demand for construction and equipment.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Moussa Dia is a civil engineer entrepreneur who ran for more than twenty years an engineering and metallic construction business (sheds, water towers…) in Saint-Louis, Northern Senegal. His passion for terracotta and the opportunity of the market led him to found SOFAMAC a small terracotta handcrafted production unit.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Sofamac

• To undertake a market study for terracotta bricks

• To carry out a feasibility study for the project

KEY IMPACTS

• Production of a construction material more adapted to local demand with a better energetic balance and entirely recyclable items

• Enhance local production, in substitution to foreign imports

• Lower consumer prices

Created in 2005, Carrières du Moungo (CDM) is a company located in Cameroon which has developed sand quarry activities for BTP construction.

The company rapidly developed to meet a growing need for high-quality construction in Cameroon. CDM currently operates on 3 sites and has diversified its activities (crushed gravel, ready-mix concrete...).

THE ENTREPRENEUR

André Ngalaho first worked within the sport community before investing in sand quarry and gravel pit. He created CDM with the financial support from his friends.

His wife Laure Djoukam started to work full-time in the company in 2009. She manages day-to-day operations while M. Ngalaho is responsible for the business development

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside CDM to:

• Renew the company’s equipment and improve its profitability

• Bring Technical assistance to reinforce the financial, technical and operational management of CDM and to set up an social and environmental plan 

IMPACTS

• 70 full time employees, out of which more than 30 high-skilled and medium skilled jobs

• Salary is twice higher than other extraction companies

• CDM satisfies a strong local demand and its production subsidies itself to importations

• A large part of CDM’s output is produced and consumed locally

• All the suppliers of the company are local

CAROTECH Benin produces outside tiles, pavement blocks and other construction cement-based inputs. These are processed without any thermal energy. Carotech’s sector of activity is lifted by a swelling urban expansion in Benin and various state programs to renovate public infrastructures. The products are addressed to a diversified clientele: individuals, public collectivities, private companies…

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Yves Modest Agbo is a young Beninese entrepreneur who, once having finished his economics studies in France at Montpellier University has immediately made the choice to create an economic activity in his country, in the industrial sector with a strong local added value. 

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside Carotech Benin to:

• Enable a rapid establishment of the production

• Provide a technical assistance for organization and formalization of the financial and accounting management. 

• Provide support of an expertise in term of commercial organization policy

IMPACTS

• Creation of a local industry of construction materials, in substitution of Chinese and European importations.

• Energy saving with cold-process production

• 5 national suppliers

Bhelix is the first SME in Benin to produce norm-adjusted gravel responding to laboratory set quality standards.

So far, construction firms had to produce their own gravel because of the broadly artisanal and informal nature of the market. Bhélix aims at the normalization of a formal offer for inputs destined to construction companies.

L'ENTREPRENEUR

Narcisse Zolla is a civil works engineer and former consultant for the Dutch cooperation. He also graduated in management from the University of Bordeaux.  

PARTENARIAT AVEC I&P

• Financed its investment plan (equipments, transport machine and management system)

• Realized a technical audit of BHELIX's production plant

• Advised BHELIX to find high-quality resources and improved management operations

IMPACTS

• Setting up of a norm-based material production chain in Benin

• More than 20,000 tons of granite sold in 2015

• 7 local suppliers

CAROTECH Mali produces cement-based cover and pavement tiles in Bamako. The process, unique in Mali, does not use any oven, which is a great asset in a country where power is very expensive. CAROTECH Mali project is supported by a particularly buoyant market, driven by the very significant and rapid urban growth in the major cities of the country, especially in Bamako.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Malick Sy, is a doctor of pharmacy and created CAMED, a leading pharmaceutical distributor of which I&P has long been a shareholder. He partnered with I&P to create CAROTECH Mali, adopting the technology used by a Nigerian company.

The company is headed since its inception by Aisha Sy, Malick’s wife. Aisha has a degree in management science and previously worked in the microfinance sector. Her rigorous management, her acute business sense and her natural authority allowed her to lead a successful development of the company.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

Beyond financial investment, I&P is committed alongside CAROTECH Mali:

• Bringing technology franchised by International Carotech

• By strengthening its structures through several technical assistance missions

• By providing the company with a strong management information system (GIS)

MAIN IMPACTS

• 21 direct jobs were created between 2007 and 2011.

• Contribution to the development of local industry as a substitute for imported products

• Energy efficient technology