In Dédougou, in Burkina Faso, a mini-dairy is changing lives of rural women since February 2012. Supported by the Regional Council and maintained by the union of breeders and producers in the region the mini-dairy Soudou Kossam is an answer to women’s e

In Loumbila, located some 20 km from Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, Euloge Tapsoba is processing corn into different products. Euloge founded his company, ALEPA, in 2007 when he was still a student. At the beginning he was just buying and selli

In Kpomassè, 60 km from Cotonou, Euphrasie DASSOUNDO has set up a processing unit for vegetables. She wants to reduce post-harvest losses. Euphrasie started her company with 30,000 FCFA in 2013, and her main activity was to process tomato into paste. Her firs

Faïçal PALENFO is an engineer in animal production. After graduation, he created FASO ELEVAGE, a company specialised in training, monitoring of farms, designing and selling livestock equipment. Faïçal started poultry farming at home and soon realised that

Three young people, Fabrice Armand SANDWIDI (General Manager), Siaka TRAORÉ (Technical Director), and Aminata Roselyne OUÉDRAOGO (Sales Director) are leading the largest livestock feed factory in Burkina Faso. SOFAB was created in 2009. It was born from an i

In Kovié, in the south of Togo, the introduction of a drip irrigation system is changing the life of women vegetable growers. Access to water was a big challenge for the women. They had to walk several kilometres to get water and carry the bucket on their hea

Women from the “Egbèlayo” cooperative of mahogany transformers are trained in the photovoltaic solar system. Due to lack of electricity, the women were facing a lot of difficulties and they could not work at night. In the darkness, they were also

Every Saturday from 09:00 to 13:00, there is a market of locally bio-based products, initiated by Mani Tese and ACRA, two Italian NGOs, to promote local products. For Mani Tese, supporting bio-based products is not just at the production level, but also at the

Caludia TOGBE, holds 3 masters’ degrees. With just 12.000 FCFA, she started to manufacture hair and dermatological products based on natural products. Marketed today under the brand “Origine Terre”. Caludia had a skin disease when she was younger and it

Florence BASSONO is an executive assistant by training. She created FASO ATTIEKE, a company that processes and markets local cassava. Being under threat of being sacked by her employer, Florence began to look for business ideas. She first tries trade, but it w

Ismaël OUÉDRAOGO, is a technician for animal husbandry. He created FASO GRAIN, a company that manufactures and markets feed for livestock. While advising breeders on how to use raw materials in the manufacture of livestock feed, Ismaël realised that they ha

After completing koranic school in Mali, Yacouba Sawadogo came back to his village in Burkina Faso and started trading. While he prospered in this business, he also noticed that the land was degraded where he lived, and people were moving to other regions as n