Share to networks
What a beautiful story that of Ms. Nafissatou Hamidou Abdoulaye! With little means and no experience in the field, she decided in 2014 to launch into the production and sale of livestock feed and created the company SALMA for this purpose. After extremely difficult beginnings and having gone bankrupt three (3) times, she made enormous sacrifices to be able to stay the course so as not to go out of business. Today, elected woman of the year 2023 (distinction from the United States Embassy), this young entrepreneur will very soon inaugurate the largest livestock feed production factory in Niger, with a capacity of 5 tonnes per hour. Focus on a woman, who started from nothing who, at the cost of courage, perseverance and patience, is today the pride of Nigerian women.
A midwife by training, holder of a master’s degree in project management and specialist in gender and advocacy, Ms. Nafissatou is a woman who knew how to fight and assert herself over time. After a brief stint at the Niger peasant platform as a gender advisor, she chose to give up her job to launch into entrepreneurship, despite the limited resources she had. In 2014, she decided to break the bank and invest everything to open her business, a company specializing in the production and sale of livestock feed made from crop residues such as cowpea bark, millet stalks, peanut fans, cowpea fans.
Speaking of his motivation, “during my visit to the Niger farmers’ platform, I had to meet a lot of actors in the agricultural sector, which led me to understand a little of the breeders’ problem. A problem of availability of livestock feed with good nutritional values,” she says. After a difficult beginning, due among other things to a sales and financial problem and despite so many setbacks suffered, she still managed to show resilience due to the “encouragement of those close to her” and especially thanks to “my mother who sold her plot of land to help me get back on my feet,” she confides. Thanks to her dedication, in 2021 she obtained support from USAID through its TRADE HUB INVESTMENT program and from a local bank. Today, the SALMA company is “doing very well,” she rejoices.
With around ten employees, 50% of whom are women, and a production of 1,300 tonnes per year, the company has become a reference in Niger. The company also works with groups of young people and women whom it supports in order to increase their income. The promoter says she is confident about the clientele. “Before we had a sales problem, customers were reluctant about our products but today we have strong demand,” she says. “Soon, the company will inaugurate a new factory with a production capacity of five (5) tonnes per hour, or an annual production of 30,000 tonnes. The company will employ more than 40 people and will work with more than 2,000 producers throughout the country,” she explains.
Speaking of difficulties, Ms. Nafissatou emphasizes that in life there are always ups and downs and we have to deal with them. “I had to fight for almost 10 years to get where I am,” she recalls. The biggest challenge is to fight unemployment and work to cope with life’s difficulties. “It’s about not giving up, fighting and believing in yourself,” she said before launching an appeal to young people. “It’s sickening to see young people sitting in the “fada” today. You have to dare and seize every opportunity to do business because there are a lot of opportunities in Niger. You must fight, persevere in accomplishing and achieving the goal you have set for yourself. No need to have millions to start, and above all be honest,” she concluded.
Ousmane Nazir (Intern)
Continue Reading
2023-12-14 20:52:08
#Initiative #Company #SALMA #Production #sale #livestock #feed #ONEP
