Equipment & Maintenance

Based in Maradi and founded in 1994, UNIFAM specializes in the manufacture of agricultural equipment, equipment and school furniture.

Sinergi Niger made its first investment in 2008 (exit in 2014) and decided in 2016 to reinvest in the company in order to allow it to diversify its activities.

PARTNERSHIP WITH SINERGI NIGER

Sinergi committed alongside with Unifam to:

• Support the extension of Unifam’s activities and develop a building materials activity to answer the needs of the Nigerien housing market

• Structure the firm (accounting, formalisation, bank relationships) and achieve stable profitability

• Support to Business development: market research and procuring process

• Support to tenders for agricultural and school equipment from UNICEF, Plan Niger, Spanish cooperation...

• Implementation of management tools (budget preparation and monitoring, cash flow plan)

KEY IMPACTS OF THE COMPANY

• Provides opportunities for many service providers and subcontractors in the Maradi region, thus contributing to the structuring of a local supply chain

• Equipping about a hundred classrooms with school furniture throughout the country in 2012, in partnership with the NGO Plan Niger

• Contribution to the 2014-2024 National Program for Investment in School Infrastructure

• Innovation in the design of agricultural equipment, ensuring better productivity

• Contributions of the project to sustainable development objectives (project on access to sustainable housing at affordable conditions, project contributing to the improvement of sustainable agriculture).

• 19 employees in 2017

• 96 agricultural machinery and equipment manufactured in 2017

• 3095 round tubes and 719 square tubes distributed in 2017

SAHEL-LAB is a Nigerien laboratory that prepares mining samples for exploration actors in the country (uranium, gold) and conducts chemical, hydrologic and environmental analyses for other actors including large NGOs.

Sahel-Lab was co-founded by SINERGI in 2009, after the entrepreneur M. Takoubakoye Daouda applied for a business plan competition organized by SINERGI in 2008. SINERGI invested €67,000 in Sahel Lab, taking a minority equity position and providing a long-term shareholder’s loan.

Sahel-Lab has grown its activity exponentially since 2011. Today, Sahel-Lab is the leading mining laboratory in Niger, accredited ISO 17 025 and realizing 100% of the samples preparation needs of the main players in mining exploration (Gazprom, Global Uranium, etc.). Sahel-Lab has created 18 trained jobs so far and plans to grow additional mining services in the years to come.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Mr. Djibo Takoubakoye DAOUDA holds a PhD in Nuclear Instrumentation from the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec-Canada), a DESS in Nuclear Security from Joseph Fourrier University (Grenoble-France) and a Master's degree in Physics from Abdou Moumouni University (Niamey-Niger).

Prior to founding Sahel-Lab, he was responsible for the Radiological Environmental Monitoring Service, in charge of the gamma-ray spectrometric analysis of environmental samples (water, soil, vegetables, etc.) from the mining regions and the analysis annual balance sheets provided by the companies. He is also Consultant in cartography and surface radiometry.

PARTNERSHIP WITH SINERGI NIGER

• Support to get ISO 17025 certification

• Strategic support to become a market leader

IMPACTS

• a leading position on the local market

Delta Irrigation sells and installs irrigation equipment and provides technical assistance to its clients in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

The company serves a wide landscape of customers: small traditional farmers eager for technical assistance, intermediate operators who do not have sufficient technical service and major national projects and developers.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Jean Pierre Chapeaux graduated as an agronomist, specializing in tropical regions. He began his career as a researcher in Belgium, then in Burundi. He led a family business in Belgium and a cardboard and packaging company in Burundi before becoming Operating Director in two of the largest farms in Senegal. He can be considered as the initiator of drip irrigation in the Senegal River valley. He created Delta Irrigation in 2003.

Bruno Demulder, geographer, led rural development projects in Senegal before taking the operational management of Delta Irrigation in 2010. 

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside Delta:

• To finance and to make formal the company’s growth strategy in Senegal and Ivory Coast

• To set up a functional IGS within the company

KEY IMPACTS

• Development of local agricultural production through the use of drip irrigation systems

• Streamlined and efficient use of water

• Participation in food security

• Implementation of health insurance for employees

• Development of the missing governance tools

Cofipêche is settled in Abidjan and locally produces knotless fishing nets sold in Ivory Coast and the sub-region. They are used for surface fishing and fish farming. Both factory trawlers and traditional fishermen prioritize this kind of nets for they do not hurt the fishes. Those international regulation-compliant nets designed to save the natural stocks from over-fishing are locally crafted from imported nylon wires. Cofipêche is the only Subsaharan African factory positioned on this industrial segment. All equivalent products are imported from Asia.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Sidi Coulibaly spent most of his career in textile industry at commercial management positions (CFCI, Uniwax, Filtisac, IPS). He took over the existing company Cofipêche in 2004.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Cofipêche

• To bring the financial support needed for recovery after the 2011 economic crisis

• To accompany the market positioning on product diversification

• To help strengthening the commercial segment of the company

• To seek for optimization of working capital

KEY IMPACTS

• Local offer facing informal and foreign competition

• Natural stocks preservation

Equip Plus is a Senegalese company within the industry of electromechanical equipment. It has developed an expertise in key sectors such as water adduction and electric networks led by a team of technicians specialized in installing and providing maintenance of this equipment.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Equip Plus:

• To ensure the business structuring: information systems, management indicators

• To strengthen guidance towards private sector demand and high value-added activities (including maintenance) 

KEY IMPACTS

• Strengthening local services capacity

• Access to water and electricity in rural areas (public service delegation)

LEGENI is the first private laboratory for geothermic and environmental studies in Niger. These studies (materials and sands tests, environmental impacts studies) are essential for the professionalization of the country construction field. Until 2006, Niger had only one public  under-equipped laboratory.  Since its creation in 2004, LEGENI took a leading position thanks to the quality of its equipments and services. The company grew quickly mainly due to mineral investments in the north of the country. 

THE ENTREPRENEUR

After having worked for long time as responsible for the maintenance in Areva mineral subsidiaries in the north of the country, Amadou ASSANE joined the Agency for execution of World Bank works in Niger. He ceased such opportunity by creating LEGENI in 2004.

As a proof of the project’s success, I&P has resold its shares of Legeni to Amadou Assane, in conformity with its vocation (Exit and Investment process). 

I&P Partnership

I&P is committed alongside Legeni:

• As the company founding stockholder after having accompanied the entrepreneur in the redaction of its initial business plan

• To provide to LEGENI a technical assistance for the company starting through a training mission for a person having a long experience about the job

• To finance at several times complementary investments in order to enlarge gradually the ranged of services proposed to its customers.

Impacts

• Amount of created jobs: 50

• Contribution to the professionalization of the Niger construction sector thank to analysis made before and after works enabling to make sure about the constructions and works quality.