Wednesday, February 12, 2025
-0.7 C
Hamburg

Adja Sembene Fall, Senegalese “Agripreneur” and African Development Bank AgriPitch Competition winner says digital marketing key to luxury tea startup success

The 2022 AgriPitch competition, which started last October, received nearly 750 complete entries from entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector – or "agripreneurs" – from 38 African countries

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, September 13, 2023/ — Senegalese businesswoman Adja Sembene Fall said she had no choice but to launch her start-up business online because her new Contanna fair-trade tea company only had $200 to its name.

“Due to [lack of] finance, it was not possible to get a physical shop. We started out in the backyard of my brother’s house. We sold our teas via social media for three years,” said Fall. She says her line of luxury brand tea products is about more than taste. Fall says Contanna teas sell a “Senegalese experience” that promotes a women-owned, 100% locally sourced and processed product based on recipes infusing family and cultural traditions.

“Digitizing our buying process was really important. We [were] also able to present and adjust packaging of our product online, [to emphasize] it was premium and different from what was available in Senegal,” the 29-year-old added.

Contanna says its first year of operations, a focus on Instagram and its website drew $5,000 in online sales. As the online business grew, Fall said, Contanna hit $12,000 in sales and established a community of around 2,000 clients.

Contanna recently opened a pop-up stall at Dakar’s Sea Plaza shopping mall. In January 2022, it was named a winner of the African Development Bank’s AgriPitch Competition, which supports African youth agripreneurs by improving their business bankability and ensuring that they are “pitch ready” for potential investors.

The 2022 AgriPitch competition, which started last October, received nearly 750 complete entries from entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector – or “agripreneurs” – from 38 African countries. The judging panel comprised women- led enterprise support advisory firm, Private Equity Support; the Private Financing Advisory Network, a global network of climate and clean energy financing experts; and EldoHub, an education, innovation, and technology organization targeting youth and women.

The competition, which awarded $140,000 in prizes in 2023, is a key activity of the Bank’s ENABLE Youth Program.

“African youth have great ideas. It was exciting to see the high level of innovation and passion from these young agripreneurs, particularly the large number of women-owned enterprises like Contanna,” said Edson Mpyisi, the Bank’s Chief Financial Economist and ENABLE Youth Coordinator.

AgriPitch organizers selected 25 semi-finalists, 68% of them women-owned or led businesses, to attend a two-week business development virtual boot camp. The boot camp culminated in a pitch session to judges, who chose 9 agripreneurs to advance to the finals.

“I was pitching in front of my shop – where customers were passing by. They were so encouraging when they discovered that [my business] is a 100% Senegalese company and especially that the founder was a woman,” said Fall. She received $25,000 as the winner in the AgriPitch competition women-owned business category.

Fall says she’ll use part of the prize money to upgrade a digital payment system and for computers and digital skills training for Contanna employees, all women.

“We don’t eschew hiring men. The women were first to apply and were qualified. They currently log their work production and stock building in paper books. We are training them to build capacity to use Google Sheets [and other digital software],” Fall said.

Contanna and the two-dozen other competition finalists will retain access to the AgriPitch “deal room” to avail of post-competition digital expertise, business development, and investor engagement.

“We look forward to working closely with the entrepreneurs in the coming months through individual business advisory support and investor engagement in the deal room,” said Diana Gichaga, Managing Partner at Private Equity Support.

Be on the lookout for the next rendition and call for applications for the next AgriPitch Competition – working to instill a culture of innovation, nurture agribusiness growth, create jobs and improve livelihoods among youth – scheduled for 2024.

Hot this week

Trudeau, EU Leaders Reaffirm Trade, Security Ties at Brussels Meeting

BRUSSELS (CHATNEWSTV) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met...

‘We are very lucky in Germany’ to have Wirtz, Musiala — Ex-coach Löw

Agency Report - Frankfurt  - Former national team coach Joachim Löw...

German Cabinet approves sending border officers to Rafah crossing

Agency Report - Germany is set to contribute up to...

German top court rules on extradition of conscientious objector

Agency Report - Conscientious objection to military service does not...

Trump’s 5% NATO spending demand ‘not on the table’ — German Defence Minister

Agency Report - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday...

Latest

Trudeau, EU Leaders Reaffirm Trade, Security Ties at Brussels Meeting

BRUSSELS (CHATNEWSTV) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met...

‘We are very lucky in Germany’ to have Wirtz, Musiala — Ex-coach Löw

Agency Report - Frankfurt  - Former national team coach Joachim Löw...

German Cabinet approves sending border officers to Rafah crossing

Agency Report - Germany is set to contribute up to...

German top court rules on extradition of conscientious objector

Agency Report - Conscientious objection to military service does not...

Trump’s 5% NATO spending demand ‘not on the table’ — German Defence Minister

Agency Report - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday...

Germany extends border controls by another six months

Agency Report - The German government has extended controls at...

Men make up 70% of supporters of Germany’s far-right AfD — Study

Agency Report - Leipzig, Germany - More than 70% of supporters...

More PDP Lawmaker Decamps To APC

Garba Koko, a member of the House of Representatives...
spot_img

Related Articles

Popular Section

spot_imgspot_img

MORE FROM CHATNEWSTV

NASENI issues new policy to drive commercialization of its innovations

Agency Report - The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, has issued a new policy of inter-institute patronage to drive commercialisation of the...

OpenAI to open first German office in Munich

Agency Report - San Jose, California (dpa) - Californian Artificial Intelligence start-up OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced on Thursday that it would open its first office in...

Alibaba Unveils Qwen 2.5 AI Model That Beats DeepSeek-V3

HONG KONG (CHATNEWSTV) — Chinese tech giant Alibaba (9988.HK) on Wednesday released an updated version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model, claiming it...

Minister Bosun Tijani Urges Nigerian Tech Ecosystem to Leverage Global Partnerships

Agency Report - The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has called on Nigeria’s tech ecosystem to maximise opportunities presented by international...

Nigeria Takes Bold Step in AI with Launch of YarnGPT Models

LAGOS, Nigeria (CHATNEWSTV) — In a bid to close Nigeria's gap in developing large language models tailored for local contexts, Saheed Azeez, a machine...

TikTok users in Germany hold different views on China, Russia

Agency Report - Young people in Germany often hold differing foreign policy views compared to the general population, particularly those using the Chinese-owned video app...

TikTok Halts Operations in the US

ByteDance has suspended TikTok in the United States (U.S.). The app disconnected access to its users in US in the late hours of Saturday, shortly...

German companies see themselves as overly reliant on US tech — Survey

Agency Report - As US President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, business leaders in Germany are expressing renewed concern over the country's reliance on...

U.S. Nigeria Technology Partnership Deepens with $2 Million Broadband Study Grant

WASHINGTON (CHATNEWSTV) — The United States and Nigeria have taken a significant step forward in technology collaboration with the signing of a $2 million...