Kola

Agriculture is a key activity for Benin, employing more than 7,000,000 Beninese ( 70% ofthe population). 

The majority of small growers and resellers in the agro-food sector operate in the informal sector. These people live in precariousness, and are not socially equipped to withstand exogenous shocks such. Most of the time, they are not educated, and therefore can hardly access more formal jobs. 

Our solution is a value chain for food processing, aiming at creating jobs and improving existing jobs for small scale farmers, street vendors, SMEs and workers excluded from the formal economy. 

It will consist in operating/commercializing small processing units (including packaging / labeling) at reduced costs, to create jobs,  foster digital inclusion and reduce post harvest losses.

The solution will include:

• An autonomous power supply kit (Solar panels)

• Compact processing units 

• Small packaging and labeling units

• Mobile applications for mapping vendors and monitoring production  

 Agriculture provides 70% of jobs in Benin. Many farmers are therefore exposed to a difficult economic situation, due to low productivity and difficulty in having access to financing. In Benin, the informal sector is the main provider of employment. In 2017, INSAE (the National Institute for Statistical and economic studies in Benin) estimated that nine out of ten active workers worked in the informal sector. One of the peculiarities of the informal sector is the low  incomes of  workers, who also experience great difficulties in accessing productives resources. They are for the most part poor and vulnerable people excluded from the traditional banking system. 

The Covid 19 crisis has highlighted the situation of people living on a daily basis, for whom confinement is not an option. Shortly before that, the closing of Nigeria's land borders resulted in important post-harvest losses. For these reasons, local farmers found themselves unable to sell their crops and repay their loans to microfinance institutions, because the existing solutions for processing food are very insufficient.

Our concept is a value chain for food commodities processing and distribution, which trains and includes vulnerable workers and uses an application for monitoring and selling products.

As a concept pilot project, we want to use small agricultural processing units, powered by solar energy to produce mashed tomatoes for the local market. In order to monitor the sale of products, we are going to develop an application which will make it possible to list the points of sale (markets, street vendors) of products, in order to increase proximity with consumers.

1 Example of  solar kit:

2-  Example of a commercial processing unit for tomatoes:

 3- Biodegradable packaging and labeling:

4 - The mobile application could look like that

Our solution will serve small farmers, street vendors, who are people in precarious jobs in agriculture and the food trade.

Our solution will make it possible to integrate them into a venture (either through employment, or through a model of commercial franchise) that will be able to provide them with a reinforced, stable income as well as safety nets (health insurance, sales assistance by integrating them into a network, etc.). Small scale farmers will be able to recover their expenses even out of season, because processing alleviates the difficulty posed by the perishability of food commodities.

Sellers will be listed to facilitate proximity sales between customers and points of sale. By selling products processed locally and accessible to low-income groups, we can demonstrate that the consumption of local products is attractive and competitive.

The majority of the workers in agriculture are in the informal sector. Many people also subsist in itinerant sales, or through small trade stalls.  Our goal is to integrate them into a value chain to create stable jobs allowing them to increase their income, and ultimately allow them to have social safety nets (such as a micro health insurance).

 A large part of these “little sellers” are women, which motivates us all the more to find solutions which will enable them to get out of the circle of underemployment.

We propose a new business model using current technology in its operation. The innovation lies in embedding those solutions in a unique value chain with specific social goals.

In the agro-industrial sector in Benin, we can count a few plants for food commodities processing (mainly for producing fruits juice).

At a very small scale, in street markets, there is a "nano" offer for food processing: this offer is adressed for people who buy tomato for example and want it mashed before going home. Some women entrepreneurs have built micro processing companies that propose products for the local market. But this remains marginal.

So between the agro-industrial scale and the "nano" scale, there is a gap that remains to be filled. 

We wondered "how can we go further?". And we think that Kola is a place to start.

Our solution is powered by technology on many levels

For processing we use Automation and solar power. 

For building our distribution platform, we’ll develop a Mobile Application, in which we will map points of sales of Kola's products.

in the short-medium term, we have an ambition which is to  exploit the GrassRoots Space work on AI for including options of translation from french to local languages, and to use Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning for improving the performance of our value chain.

Every technology we use in our solution has applications and is already widely used. What we will test is our value-chain which include those technologies.

The challenge of  unemployment and of the informal economy has many dimensions:  lack of education, lack of real job opportunities and the poverty trap. 

 In a country where agriculture provides revenues for millions of people, we want to harness the potential of stable jobs linked to the agricultural value chain.

Our concept applies a multi sectoral approach, and proposes a solution that can tackle several issues at once.

Our theory of change starts with equipping workers (young, women, unemployed, excluded from the education system, working in the informal economy with low revenues) with the skills needed to operate a processing unit. We then identify small scale farmers and street vendors, for including them in our value chain so that they can increase their revenues and have social safety nets.

• We bet on inclusivity: we target vulnerable workers and job seekers, so that they can have increase their income and benefit from social safety nets

• We bet on proximity : developing an app which will locate our selling points in order to reach people who want local products nearby

• We bet on girls and women: street sellers are mostly women. We want them to increase their revenues, be less vulnerable to shocks  and gain more skills.

• Finally we bet on local products: post harvest losses should definitely be reduced in a country like ours. We want local farmers to undergo less losses and ensure a higher income. We also want to prove that even with modest revenues, people can afford locally processed high quality products. We want to harness the potential of agro-industry in our country, with a bottom-up vision

For one processing "chain", we plan to create and enforce hundreds of jobs in the south of Benin, by year 5 of operating. If successful, the model will be replicated in other regions of Benin, and in other african countries.

The business model of Kola can be one of commercial franchises (this will be studied as we explore the feasibility), which will allow us to reach more people. The following table gives details of minimal targets projections for one instance of the chain. 

What we want is to design the value chain so that it can be successfuly replicated so that we can positively impact thousands of people.

Next year, we plan to pilot the concept. We will do a market study for tomato processing and pilot the concept for this commodity. After 3 years we plan to scale up horizontally, and build more "chains" of Kola.

After 5 years, our ambition is to extend the concept to other products for the local and regional market. In a transversal way, the GrassRoots Space will continue its research work (for example using artificial intelligence, automation....) to optimize our value chain and find value-added products for the regional market (mango smoothie, pineapple-moringa delight, etc...), so that we can scale up vertically. 

Our main difficulties are the following: 

• Having reliable data for feasability studies

• Financing. Almost all beninese startups and SMEs are self-funded.

We plan to do a complete feasibility study for having updated and reliable data on the market, and to study if and how our proposal will be socially accepted. We will build local capacities, for making sure that workers can deal with the tasks, but can also be competitive on the job market. 

We plan to raise funds for financing our work. For the first pilot for KOLA we propose a simplified stock company.

Three volunteers work on Kola's concept

Marie-Bénédicte (MB) is the founder of the GrassRoots Space, which works on research and action (AI, inclusive economy, environment…).MB works in public energy policy in beninese institutions. Her interest in public policy, research and concrete applications translated into the GrassRoots Space.  The GrassRoots Space hosted brainstorming meetings on inclusive jobs and agritech. That's how the idea of Kola was found. 

Jean-David is an expert in automation with interests in entrepreneurship for social impact.

Alex is an entrepreneur with extensive experience business development (https://business.lesechos.fr/entrepreneurs/financer-sa-creation/0602691681939-kits-solaires-qotto-leve-6-millions-de-dollars-pour-se-deployer-en-afrique-de-l-ouest-334909.php), and a member of the GrassRoots Space. 

We are all beninese and our fields or expertise are complementary.

We propose a value chain for agricultural commodities processing.

• The processing unit will be operated by people (entrepreneurs with activity, young people, women) who need additional income, who will be trained
• The supply chain will include to small scale farmers,  street sellers of fruit and vegetables (with commercial maintenance / after-sales contract)
• À micro-insurance will be provided by the start up (microinsurance for people on low incomes → example of people who live day by day and who are particularly vulnerable to the slightest shock (death, confinement linked to COVID, illness etc) 
• For enhancing proximity with clients, we will provide an application, which will be a platform to frame the distribution: the street sellers will be mapped and the products will be sold online for example via mobile money. We'll also build an application for monitoring the chain (from supply to sells)

In the short term, the goal is to meet the needs of the local market. In the long term, it will involve exporting value-added processed products on the regional market. We plan to sell the products to consumers and businesses like restaurants or shops. 

We'll study the most optimal revenue model for the processing units (commercial franchises, direct employment....).

The GrassRoots Space will study the concept. We plan to fund Kola as a simplified stock company.

We plan to reach the local market first, then we will scale up the production (in terms or amount of products processed and in terms of type of products we will process). Our goal is to widen our proposal ( more than one product - pineapple, maize….) for the local market.

After five years of (successful) operation, we will explore the regional market (exportation of strong value-added products like  cashews, mango, pineapple or moringa -derived products….). 

We are applying to Solve because we are motivated in sharing our concept with practitioners and experts around the world so that we can improve it. If we are selected, it will be a formidable opportunity to have funding for our pilot and to network with other organizations.

• Google AI Center in Ghana: to assist us with our research on AI uses for Kola
• The Rockfeller Foundation : to fund us and or bring their field experience in solar productive use