September 18, 2024

Mali's Inclusive Agribusiness Club Bootcamp: A first initiative with resounding success

Mali

Following the Inclusive Agribusiness Club (IAC) in Mali last November, a Bootcamp was organised along these lines this year in collaboration between the local 2SCALE team in Mali and members of the IAC committee. This event was a unique opportunity to strengthen the skills and develop the professional network of Malian agricultural entrepreneurs. The Inclusive Agribusiness Club (IAC) was established as part of 2SCALE's initiatives to promote inclusiveness in the agriculture industry. 2SCALE collaborates with companies and professional organizations to develop sustainable business models that foster inclusion and build public-private partnerships. The IAC serves as a platform for exchanging ideas and sharing expertise, enabling agricultural entrepreneurs to connect with key players in agribusiness, access new resources, and benefit from high-level training. It also brings together stakeholders in the agricultural sector to share knowledge, experiences, and business opportunities. The club offers a learning platform featuring awareness-raising sessions, training workshops, seminars, and conferences led by renowned experts.

A transformative Bootcamp with innovative, practical training courses

Set up by Mali's Inclusive Agribusiness Club (IAC) committee, in partnership with the 2SCALE program and Impact Hub Bamako, this Bootcamp, designed to build the capacity of agricultural entrepreneurs, featured a few activities in a program that was well defined at the outset, including two flagship training modules: Financial Management, Artificial Intelligence and Productivity.

Focus on modules financial management and capitalization

Ms Dembélé Fatoumata Cissé, assisted by Ms Lydia Nanga from Cissé Kunda Intelligence, led a training session on financial management. The training focused on differentiating between personal and business expenses, keeping regular balance sheets, and opening a bank account in the company's name. The key principles were discipline, rigor and integrity, with the objectives of maximizing profitability, minimizing costs, ensuring liquidity, maximizing shareholder value, managing debt and financial leverage.

Mamadou Lamine Thera, Promoter of BIM Agrobusiness and Vice-President of the Club, shares the significant impact of this workshop on his current lifestyle,

The Bootcamp really changed the trajectory of our business. Before, we were unaware of certain aspects of the banks' role in managing our financial resources. Now, we have separated our personal finances from those of the company, which has enabled us to invest more effectively. In addition, we have strengthened our written commitments, thus improving our resource management. Sharing experiences made us realize the importance of the agricultural value chain and inspired us to be more determined. Yes, processing is part of our vision. We started with smoked fish production, and we thank 2SCALE for their continued support and vision for the club, hoping they will attract other partners to invest in our projects.

A second wind in a world rich in Artificial Intelligence

Idrissa Kanouté, assisted by Ms. Aminata Fatou Ouattara from Slash Digital, provided training on artificial intelligence (AI). AI includes all machines capable of thinking and learning autonomously. It offers significant advantages in terms of efficiency and speed. Participants were introduced to practical uses of popular AI tools including Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat), which is Microsoft's chatbot based on the GPT-4 (OpenAI) language model and powered by the Microsoft Prometheus model for generating text and writing different types of content, and Rytr, a platform offering several AI tools enabling over forty use-case-based functionalities, particularly for content creation in the digital marketing sector.

These two tools are applied in marketing and enable agricultural businesses to automate repetitive tasks such as managing customer data, optimizing marketing campaigns and analyzing data. The aim is to support decision-making by providing information on customer behavior, and to focus efforts on effective channels or allocate the most accurate budget possible.

The impact of this Bootcamp has been an incredible opportunity for me and my business. I learned a lot about leadership, financial management and artificial intelligence, which are essential for developing a business. Networking opened new horizons and enabled me to meet potential collaborators. I've started to apply rigorous financial management principles, which have already shown positive results,

confides Sitan Kassogué, Managing Partner of AgriSolution.

A third module on the road

Focusing on the five biggest enemies of productivity, the final session of this trio of flagship modules was led by Dramane Tounkara, a facilitator at the Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN). Facilitated in English, this part referred to the main enemies of productivity, including noisy colleagues, non-productive use of the Internet, inefficient meetings, poor e-mail management and inappropriate use of smartphones.

For Messouda Mint Sarr - Maliyiriden promoter a company that transforms fruit into juice, syrup, nectar and much more, expressed that the bootcamp has been highly beneficial. She stated,

It has helped a lot in terms of networking. I learned about new digital marketing tools, such as Copilot and Canva, which have improved the quality of our advertisements. Although we don't yet have precise statistics, we have seen an increase in our presence on social networks, including some fifteen new subscribers on TikTok. Our company, Good Juice, known under the brand name Maliyiriden, has been reinvigorated thanks to these new skills.

The Bootcamp included experience-sharing sessions between participants and the 2SCALE Mali Country Team Leader, as well as a field visit to Mamadou Lamine Thera's BIM Agrobusiness farm in Katibougou. The discussions focused on tips and strategies for making better use of certain essential tools to boost one's business.

Finally, Fatoumata Touré, President of IAC, declares

For some time now, we've had the idea of organizing various training courses on different themes. As business leaders, we knew that theoretical training could be a hindrance in terms of time and practice. To overcome these challenges, we decided to organize a Bootcamp, which would be far more beneficial than a simple theoretical training course. The main challenges were time-related, as the initiation and organization of the Bootcamp were carried out in a very short timeframe. However, we successfully met this challenge, and the Bootcamp turned out to be a real success. Thanks to the Bootcamp, the club's member companies were able to apply the tools they had learned to their own activities. We received positive feedback, and the club gained visibility in unexpected places, opening up new opportunities.

In addition, this bootcamp training, far from being limited to the transmission of theoretical knowledge, is part of a long-term support approach. The six-monthly follow-up plan put in place by the IAC and 2SCALE bears witness to the desire to perpetuate the achievements of the bootcamp and will make it possible to assess the impact of these experiences on daily practices while identifying and resolving any difficulties encountered. These assessments will enable us to observe a significant improvement in their performance and competitiveness.

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