Benin

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

Tincy is an industrial bakery created in 2009 in Cotonou. Tincy produces and distributes bread to consumers through a shop, a network of 24 kiosks, more than 50 shopkeepers and professionals from hostelry and restauration sectors.

The bakery is launched in 2009. Initially conceived as a simple marketing exercise, the project proved to be a real success. In 2010, the turnover of the bakery exceeded the one of the consulting firm. Gatien Adjaboni is deeply involved in this new activity and has notably launched the National Association of Bakers of Benin, which gathers a dozen of professionals and represents to this day the only union in the sector.

The Entrepreneur

The company was founded by Gatien Adjagboni, a young Beninese entrepreneur who graduated from a French business school. He started his career at the Brtitish America. In 2006, he launched a consulting firm, named Tincy. The firm is still operational and employs about 10 people.

Partnership with I&P

I&P committed alongside Tincy to:

• Double the production capacity of the company

• Improve the quality and the management of the production and the distribution

• Diversify the products by starting making pastries

Impacts

• Increased availability of bread thanks to a dense network of distribution

• Structuring of the sector

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

NoMAD (Le Nouveau Modèle Africain de Distribution), imports goods and offers a wholesale self-service to professionals in Benin. Nomad is now the main provider for traditional groceries and local minimarkets. In 2008, Nomad signed a master-franchise agreement with the French distribution group Casino. Since then, it undertakes the brand implementation in local stores in Benin. Nomad found its place in a market shared between family monopoles destined to the upper-class and the expatriates on one hand and informal corner shops on the other.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Adedogni Abimbola degreed from Toulouse Business School. After a senior executive career at Decathlon, he projected to develop a distribution chain linking the foreign brands to the African market, wishing to respond to the middle class growing demand in the sub region.

I&P Partnership

I&P is committed alongside Nomad to:

• Invest in the communication of the Casino brand

• Enable it to equip itself with a performing computer system

• Help it to get financial managing tools allowing an effective follow-up of the activity

Impacts

• Number of jobs created: 25

• Local distribution chain

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