By African Development Bank
Published September 14, 2023
Adja Sembene Fall, the Senegalese young woman who has won the AgriPitch Competition, says she had no choice but to launch her start-up business online because her new Contanna Fair-Trade Tea Company only had the equivalent of US$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,” says Fall whose 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.
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“Digitizing our buying process was really important. We presented and adjusted packaging of our product online to emphasize it was premium and different from what was available in Senegal,” says 29-year-old Fall.
Contanna says its first year of operations, a focus on Instagram and its website, drew US$5000 in online sales. As the online business grew, it hit US$12000 in sales and established a community of around 2000 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.
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The 2022 AgriPitch competition, received nearly 750 entries from entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector – or “agripreneurs” – from 38 African countries.
The competition, which awarded US$140000 in prizes in 2023, is a key activity of the Bank’s ENABLE Youth Programme.
“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,” says Edson Mpyisi, the Bank’s Chief Financial Economist and ENABLE Youth Coordinator.
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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,“ says Fall. She received US$25000 as the winner in the AgriPitch competition women-owned business category.
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Fall says she shall 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,” Fall says.
