Cameroon

Ecofood is a Cameroonian company that operates in mass catering and started its activities with school catering and life base services. Today, it feeds more than 1500 students a day in the most prestigious primary and secondary schools in Yaoundé.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Stéphane NKONTCHOU is the founder of Ecofood. He grew up in Cameroon and then continued his studies in France, with two master's degrees in Mechanics from the Pierre et Marie Curie University and Arts et Métiers. After ten years of experience in industrial project management, he decided to come back to Cameroon to take care of a family business of which he became the General Manager. After this experience, he decided to found Ecofood.

THE PURPOSE OF THE FUNDING

Ecofood is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel, funded by the European Union.

The objectives of the funding are : 

• to acquire 3 vehicles for the distribution of meals in schools
• the fitting out of the new premises
• the implementation of an information system
• the preparation and execution of the marketing and communication strategy

Fisco is a Cameroonian company that markets household products (detergents, bleach, etc.) and para-pharmaceutical products (hydro-alcoholic gels, alcohol, etc.). The company has an artisanal production unit in Bonabéri, in Douala and has activities that now extend to 3 regions of the country (Littoral, Centre, North).

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Fisco was created by Joel Sikam, a Cameroonian with a degree in finance (Bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas). After starting his career in the United States in equity and wealth management with family offices, he returned and founded his own company. Joël Sikam is also very active in the GICAM which is the employers' association of Cameroon.

PURPOSE OF THE FUNDING

Fisco is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel. The funding granted will upgrade in safety and quality  by financing the facilities and the acquisition of the necessary equipment. The program will also allow the company to finance the acquisition of a new vehicle for distribution and to support the company in the execution of its communication strategy. 

Pigier Cameroun is a private business school for higher education, launched in 2011 by the Cameroonian Dr Henri Tafou. With the mission to “Train for employment”, Pigier Cameroun stand out as a leading player in vocational training in Cameroon. The school provides pragmatic solutions to match the needs of companies in terms of competent human resources.

Pigier Cameroun offers trainings of international quality in Human Sciences and Management, at Bachelor and Master levels. The training programs include: Banking and Corporate Finance, Finance, Audit and Management Control, Communication, Marketing & Digital, Transport, Logistics and Customs, Business Management, Taxation and Business Law, Human Resources Management.

Context

In sub-Saharan Africa, the unemployment rate is around 7.3%, and mainly affects young people. This is largely due to the existing gap between training courses and the real needs of companies on the ground. More specifically, businesses complain about the lack of professionalization provided by existing institutions.

The entrepreneur

Pigier Cameroun was created in 2011 by Dr Henri TAFOU, an education entrepreneur, who has held several positions as Regional Sales Director, Marketing Director, Commercial Advisor and General Manager in several companies in Cameroon.

For more than 25 years, he has gained expertise in the education sector, with multinational experiences: He worked within the Pigier Group in Côte d'Ivoire as Sales Director in charge of continuing education. After that, he joined the head office of the PIGIER brand in France as Director of Franchise Development; and went back to Africa by becoming the first African to benefit from a PIGIER franchise in Africa, through the takeover of the Cotonou franchise in Benin. During his management in Benin, he succeeded in having the franchise certified to the ISO 9001 standard, making Pigier Bénin the very first business school in Sub-Saharan Africa to obtain this certification.

In 2011, he sold the Benin franchise and returned to Cameroon to launch Pigier Cameroon, the very first PIGIER franchise in Central Africa.

Partnership with I&P

I&P partners with Pigier Cameroun through its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2). I&P provides patient financing, technical assistance, and strategic/operational support to strengthen the structuring of the company.

The partnership notably addresses the following issues:

—⇒ Consolidating the company’s achievements and ensuring the continuous improvement of its academic training programs

—⇒ Strengthening its positioning in the market in order to serve a greater number of learners and business professionals

—⇒ Strengthening the company’s governance, as well as its operational performance

Expected Impacts

Social impacts:

• Increasing the number of learners and graduates trained by Pigier Cameroon

• Improving the employability rate of graduates of Pigier Cameroon,

• Improving the capacities and skills of business professionals

• Creating jobs and securing created and/or existing jobs

—Governance impacts:

• Strengthening the company’s governance

• Improving the company's strategy

ITG Store is an IT services company offering service and infrastructure integration. The company creates a strong local added value through management information systems, data storage and other services. Relying on a local team of expert engineers, ITG has earned the trust of major clients operating in the region.

Though the African SI market is booming, it still remains overwhelmed by foreign companies. ITG Store has easily overcome this strong competition thanks to same-level quality services at lowest prices. The company creates a strong local added value through SI management, data storage and other services. Its CEOs, computer engineers Gabriel Fopa and Eric Heslot relies on a young team they have trained within the company.

ITG is now the exclusive African computing partner of Bolloré, one of the most powerful financial and industrial French conglomerates.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Gabriel Fopa and Eric Heslot were both computing engineers at the SSI company SILICOMP. In 2006, they decided to create their own SSII in Douala. The entrepreneurs financed all the equipment and software with their own capital. Then, they trained a team of engineers and technicians recruited locally. Since 2007, the company won a great number of bids and tenders, constituting a thick portfolio of big firms.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside ITG Store to:

• To accompany the strong growth of its activities, particularly with regard to internal infrastructures and working environment

• To bring financings addressed to the creation of a test and training center to fill the structural lack of qualified local human resources in this sector. 

• Construction of green building for the new headquarters and data center

• Ensure basic healthcare cover for employees

KEY IMPACTS

• Number of created jobs: 73, including 11 women and a large majority of high-skilled employees

• Development and promotion of local skills in the computing field

• Recruitment policy toward young degreed and continuous training of employees.

• Company governance structuration

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

Acep Cameroun is a microfinance institution specialized in financing SMEs from urban areas of Douala, Yaounde and Bafoussam. Acep is now a 5 in-country MFI network.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside ACEP CAMEROON:

• To organize the transformation process of ACEP Cameroon to a private financial institution

• To contribute to the business plan elaboration and the round table constitution.

• To assure a regular operational monitoring

• To actively participate to the governance proceedings (audit comity and board of directors)

KEY IMPACTS

• Number of created jobs: 166

• Since 2005, ACEP has allowed more than 45 000 credits distributed to very small entrepreneurs (street food vendors, shoemakers, bayamselams) 

• Incomes annual growth in average since 2007: +32%

GENEMARK processes generic drugs (anti-infectious, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory …) and aims at the largest distribution scale thanks to an offer 30% to 50% cheaper than classical drugs. Genemark developers favor the production of liquid drugs (15 references over 27) in order to reduce overdose risks, particularly high in paludism treatments for children.

Report on Genemark (in French)

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Gisele Etamé decided in 2003 to launch her own pharmaceutical laboratory. As a Doctor in pharmacy, she took the opportunity to develop pharmaceutical products available for all after the Cameroonian Ministry of Health authorized the sale of generic medicine. Thanks to her strife over the last decade, Genemark is now a major label in the local pharmaceutical industry.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside GENEMARK:

• To enable the reference range enlargement 

• To finance the production capacity growth

• To keep a watch over the products quality   

• To supervise the deployment of a sales force

• To improve the governance

KEY IMPACTS

• Number of jobs created or maintained: 20

• Genemark has improved the access to health by offering medicines 30 to 50% less expensive than licensed  medicines

• Turnover annual growth on average since 2008: +14%

Kawtal is an agribusiness company based in Cameroon, specialized in corn production.

In 2009, I&P acquired 40% of SAGEX, an agribusiness company producing corn on a fully-mechanized and rationalized processing plant. In 2014, Sagex merged with Kawtal Ndmeri, a neighboring exploitation in order to double the production and start processing baby feeding flours.

Though agriculture is a key sector to Cameroon’s economy (up to 40% of the GDP), it suffers from a lack of mechanization and production rationalization which affects its profitability and production volumes. Thus, local corn farming is highly insufficient to cover the current market needs. Cameroon is every year a net corn importer, which implies high costs for local consumers because of transportation and importation costs. Kawtal intends to fill the needs of this local market with a better-mastered production and distribution chain.

Kawtal has developed a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, so as to enhance the agricultural potential of the region.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Kawtal:

• To start the company’s activity based on mechanizing an old production site

• To finance the equipment and inputs

• To finance a 200ha increase of the exploited field

KEY IMPACTS

• 34 jobs created or maintained

• Participation in local food security

Cameroun Breuvages packs and sells natural and flavored spring water under the brand Sawawa. Launched in 2004, Cameroun Breuvages took the local leadership upon the market face to 15 other competitors and hundreds of informal street sellers. In 2008, the company has produced more than 10 million water pouches while undergoing a significant increase of its production capacities. The brand still keeps one step ahead with its new flavored water, Pamparam, company’s best-seller.

L’ENTREPRENEUR

Roger Njitchoua was a professor and researcher in hydrology at the University of Orsay (Paris XI) settled in France since 1982. In 2001, during a trip in his native country, Cameroun, he was struck by the social and health stakes raised by the access to potable water. Thanks to his experience within the hydrology field, he gets back to France convinced that something has to be done to enable the largest distribution of high-quality water. With financial support from acquaintances, and his own savings, he starts Cameroun Breuvages in 2004, a local water distribution company selling low-cost but high-quality water pouches.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Cameroun Breuvages :

• To accompany the enterprise’s debuts with a complete mentoring in strategic, financial and commercial management

• To bring the necessary financial means to sustain the growth needs

• To be part of the governance scheme through chairing at the board

• To support the launch of PamParam

Impacts

• Annual turnover growth in average since 2006: + 22%

• Distribution of high-quality water to the largest part of the population, including the lowest classes

• Use of recyclable sachets. 

Biotropical is a company producing and exporting biological tropical fruits (mangoes, bananas, pineapple, papayas…) which are exported in fresh, frozen or dry toward France and other European Union countries. Biotropical is certified by Ecocert.

I&P Partnership

I&P is committed alongside Biotropical:

• To bring a financial support allowing the extension of plantations 

• To improve production with a new factory

• To strengthen the governance scheme by chairing the board

• To provide Biotropical with commercial inputs

• To undertake technical assistance missions in management, commercial and financial fields

Impacts

• 112 jobs created or kept, including 40% women

• Around a hundred of small local producers are trained and accompanied by Biotropical which transform and export their production

• Organic production enhancement in Cameroon, substitution of classical inputs by organic ones 

• Knock-on effect within the sector since 7 local producers went organic after Biotropical arrived on the market

• Environmental-friendly activity