New beginnings
Daring young African entrepreneurs are taking the plunge – given a high profile and opportunities, they could get things moving in the African agribusiness sector. Without expecting any help from government, the youngest population in the world are preferring to go it alone to build their futures.
What if an African drink were to top the global consumption chart? That is the dream of the founders of Bana-Bana, a company that produces and distributes Senegalese fruit juices. You have to go to the 18th arrondissement of Paris to find Youssouf and Mamadou Fofana, both 55 years old, who have just opened ‘Les Oiseaux Migrateurs’, an outlet for their flagship Bana-Bana (hibiscus beverages) and Maison Château Rouge (African wax print clothing line) products. These hibiscus drinks are manufactured and bottled in Senegal, in partnership with private company Esteval, in a factory with a staff of around 10, while the hibiscus is supplied by some 800 women based in the Thiès and Kaolack regions. Bana-Bana is such a resounding success – especially via sales at events in Paris – that the founders are considering boosting their production capacity. A glance at the media coverage shows that this is a budding trend, not just an isolated initiative.
Africa hosts the youngest population in the world, representing a very substantial pool of potential entrepreneurs. According to a recent IPSOS-AFRICAP survey focused specifically on African youth, 15-24 year olds hope to, “learn, work, consume, have fun and uninterrupted access to electricity and internet,” as mentioned by Florence de Bigault in an interview in the magazine Le Point Afrique. The survey (1,816 respondents) revealed that these young people do not expect anything from governments, preferring to build their own future via entrepreneurship and innovation. Should young people be allowed to go it alone in business? Not entirely, they also require essential funding, coaching and training assistance.
Aïssata Diakité, the 24 year old founder of ZABBAN Holding, is part of this daring youth movement and her case illustrates that doors are opening for African youth. Born in Mali, she left for France to pursue university studies in agribusiness. That triggered this young woman’s desire to launch a business venture in July 2016, focused on consulting, production and marketing of nutritional fruit juices in Mali. Her attitude is to courageously take initiatives and share experience, while surrounding herself with advisers – especially from Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) and the Campus France Entrepreneurs in Africa programme – which provide advice, research and development studies, technical support, feasibility studies and interest-free loans.
A broad range of training initiatives are emerging like StartupBus, a competition where young talents hone their projects in groups during bus rides punctuated by meetings with inspiring entrepreneurs. Virtual venues of innovation and sharing also exist, especially through GYIN, an international youth network devoted to promoting youth services, supported by Columbia University (USA) and international bodies such as CTA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. GYIN is also involved in negotiating seed loans for youth startups, enabling them to get more attractive interest rates. Similarly, the International Trade Center in Geneva launched an online course for young people wishing to create a small business. Finally, the Tony Elumelu Foundation offers a 12-month entrepreneurship training programme with the aim of creating 10,000 startups in 10 years. The Foundation regularly hosts 1 hour Twitter chats with agribusiness specialists, such as that held in June 2016 with Calestous Juma, an international development professor at Harvard, on ‘Agripreneurship in Africa’.
This plethora of initiatives should nevertheless not hide the fact that youth accounted for nearly 37% of the 199 million unemployed people in the world in 2014, according to the International Labour Organization. We now hope that many entrepreneurs with the spirit of Aïssata, Mamadou and Youssouf will emerge on the scene to inspire their generations and others towards new beginnings.
*This is an abridged version of an article published on the website of Fondation FARM (www.fondationfarm.org), which is organising a conference to address the question of ‘Could food provide a solution to the unemployment situation in Africa?’ to be held in Paris on 8 December 2016.
Marie-José Neveu Tafforeau
