Sample Inclusive Businesses
The global literature contains thousands of cases of Inclusive Business (IB). Studies focusing on the African landscape have identified numerous compelling business cases that provide solutions for impoverished and low-income individuals.
All companies mentioned would meet the actual or potential Inclusive Business (IB) criteria. They are commercially viable, experiencing growth, and have a significant or moderate social impact.
These companies are all recommended for inclusion in a targeted support program. However, it’s important to note that these examples are just a starting point, and many more companies within these countries would qualify as Inclusive Business (IB) and Inclusive Green Business (IGB). Other African economies are encouraged to conduct their own IB landscape studies and all countries in the region to establish institutionalised IB accreditation processes. This would allow IB to identify more companies transparently and foster greater economic inclusion across the continent. This would allow IB to identify more companies transparently and foster greater economic inclusion across the continent.
The table on the right provides a summary of the companies featured in the landscape studies, including their sector, strategic intent, engagement mode with the Base of the Pyramid (BoP), size of the business line, impact, and general Inclusive Business (IB)/Inclusive Green Business (IGB) rating results.
Following this, the companies are elaborated on in more detail. It is worth noting that additional information about the companies can be found in the landscape studies and in the partially confidential background information for the studies.
Kenya
Githunguri Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society in Kenya is a registered dairy cooperative society operating as a private company. In 2020, it reported a revenue of $74 million and had a social reach extending to 24,000 smallholder farmers. The cooperative pays its farmers better than the market rate and incorporates innovative features tailored for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) population. Notably, it achieves approximately 19% higher yields than the market rate. The company has implemented various innovations aimed at reducing business and BoP risks. These include facilitating access to affordable inputs, improving breeds and animal health services, providing access to finance, diversifying farmer income opportunities, and establishing linkages to health insurance services.
Kisii Eye Hospital in Kenya is a specialised facility focusing on eye care. With a revenue of $1 million in 2019, it has provided services to 155,099 patients since its establishment, with 80 percent coming from the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). The hospital employs a cross-subsidization model to ensure that poor patients can access treatment, offering operations and eye care services at a cost that is no more than 50% of what non-BoP customers pay. The hospital has implemented several innovative measures to mitigate business and BoP risks. These include conducting outreach services to reach patients with limited access to healthcare centres, forming partnerships with medical training schools to enhance staff expertise, and establishing a fund to cover emergencies and provide treatment for BoP patients who cannot afford it.
The Kenya Coffee Cooperative Enterprise (KCCE) is a smallholder farmers-backed coffee marketing company with a revenue of $3 million (2019) and a social reach of over 35,000 smallholder farmers- 95% of the BoP. The entry of KCCE has systematically increased competition, reduced the risks of price fixing by a few agents, and moved cherry prices from the lows of KSh. 20 per kilo to 2020 season price of up to over KSh. 100 per kilo of cherry. The company introduced various innovations to reduce business and BoP risks, enhancing transparency in the real value and weight of coffee processed and marketed, sourcing of premium customers, extension services support to the farmer, promoting good agricultural practices, efficient logistics and warehousing, processing and value-adding and branding of coffee.
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is a smallholder farmers owned tea company with a revenue of $ 738.3 million in 2020 and a social reach of 620,000 smallholder farmers paying better than the market rate and having some innovative features for the BoP. It has more than doubled the price of tea from $ 1.73 per kilo in December 2007 to a high of $2.59 per kilo in 2019 and has in 2021 set a minimum auction tea price $2.43 per kilo. The company introduced various innovations to reduce business and BoP risks, extension services support to the farmer through farm schools, use of digital system to improve transparency and traceability, linkage to finance and partnership to improve access to health insurance for the farmers.
Sanergy is a company in Kenya that operates in the circular economy. They make fertilisers and sell them to 150 middlemen, who sell to around 2,500 customers (projected to be 20,000 by 2025). Additionally, they provide public toilets for around 150,000 people living in slums in Kenyan cities. Their work has improved access to clean sanitation and provided income for 3,598 franchise operators. The company has two main parts: one collects waste from markets and slums and turns it into organic fertilisers and animal feed, which are sold through other businesses. The waste processing part of their business is growing quickly and contributes 80% of the industry’s revenue.
Sokowatch is a trading platform in Kenya, offering deliberate selected products relevant to the BoP at good prices has an estimated annual turnover of $36 million (2020). The company has 30,000 informal retailers from the BoP in its network. The company estimates that it saves informal retailers at least 20% on supply-chain costs for the goods they supply. The company is also selective in the quality and relevance of the product for the BoP. With limited capital, the informal traders access goods to stock the retail shops avoiding stock outs -therefore increasing revenue opportunities..
Nigeria
Achi Greens Farms is a small ginger processing company in Nigeria sourcing from farmers in 14 villages in Southern Kaduna State. About 80% of the sale is raw and dry-split ginger and only 20% further processed, indicating a low value addition, which the company could improve on. The whole company and the IB business line are the same. The company is aware of the seasonality of ginger production (8 months) and therefore also encourages their farmers to produce vegetable in the ginger off season (4 months). However, while the company helps taking vegetables to the markets and achieving higher prices for their farmers, it seems that this vegetable production is not a core business line of the company. While the company is still small (its revenue in the 2021/2022 season was US$ 30,000) the company aims at transitioning to IB to create a revenue of 0.2 million in the 2025 season. In 2022 the company worked with 50 farmers directly, engaging about 2000 laborers on their farmland. The company was classified as a potential IBonly.
Falgates is a medium-sized seeds company in Nigeria established in 2016 and specializing in providing inputs for rice, sorghum soya farmers and adding value through processing and marketing. The company made various transformations from a pure rice processing company over a more comprehensive input provider (maize, millet, soya beans, beans and sorghum). to a company having now a dedicated business line on climate smart rice seeds. Today the company works in Kaduna (main area), Niger, Kebbi and Jigawa states. From its 3 business lines, Falgates generated a revenue of NGN 6,5 billion in 2022 ($10.8 million) of which about 45% came from the seedling sale, 30% from the rice processing and 25% from the comprehensive farming model. The company expects a peak at N100 billion by 2025, mainly through growing its comprehensive farming model by shifting to 2 season farming and irrigation. The company works with about 1,000 farmers (2022) up from 500 in 2019 and will expand to 3,000 in 2025. About 50% of those farmers are in business line 1 (rice farming), 30% in business line 2 (other commodities) and 20% (175 farmers) in business line 3 (comprehensive farming). The company will increase social reach in business line 3 to about 300 farmers by 2022 and 700 by 2025.
Babban Gona is a large and famous inclusive business promoter in Nigeria. The company started in 2013 and is meanwhile the biggest maize processing company in Africa. The company’s business objective is to “make small farmers richer” (a very catchy business statement) by addressing the structural reason for the poverty experienced by these farmers, esp. low economies of scale, low productivity, low marketing potential. The company’s IB business model is very comprehensive providing holistic end-to-end services such as training on best practices, credit packages, inputs of seedlings, supervision, storage and marketing, and organizing farmers in franchise farmer groups. The company reduces input costs for the farmers, increases productivity and yields, and reduces other business risks, thus substantially increasing the farmers’ income. This is particularly relevant as the company focused on the maize sector, where most Nigerian farmers work with very low productivity, low value addition and very low commercialization. Babban Gona works deliberately in the poorer Northern areas of Nigeria, with a strong base also in Kaduna state. Starting from 2012, the company’s revenue increased form $ 20,000; to $70 million (ca N 42 billion), and it is expected to hit $250 million by 2025. The company is meanwhile the largest corn processor in Africa. Babban Gona has strong sector, geographic and systemic poverty reduction impact in Nigeria. The company has also a specific women empowerment program working with 18,500 female entrepreneurs to retail a wide variety of fast-moving consumer goods. The firm also provides business training and credit schemes for those women in 26 locations. This program is a separate business line of Babban Gona and not directly related to the core business. However the women empowerment feature is not CSR but a separate business line of the firm.
InfiBranches is a fintech company in Nigeria that was incorporated in 2019 as a financial services company for financial inclusion to create financial access to rural and peri-urban areas in Nigeria. However, in carrying out its financial service business, the company discovered a need to provide energy access for its customers. Therefore, since 2021 the company has included the provision of solar energy services in its financial services. InfiBranches currently works with insurance companies, solar companies, cable companies, telecoms, and banks. Its transactions are routed through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBS) and Interswitch, the country’s interbank platform. The company offers services through a network of agents utilizing its Fazipay (formerly Omnibranches) agent application program. InfiBranches uses its integrated processes and value providers in the same source, offering these services to customers for a standard fee prescribed by regulators. Solar sales contribute 30 percent of the company’s revenue. The company has a clear strategy to ensure that solar contributes about 60 percent of total revenue. For 2022, the company targets an income of about $70 million, The company achieves its significant impact by providing essential goods and services through its finance platform. In 2022 it closed 1 million transactions from 250,000 customers (1 million/250,00) and projects to grow to 5 million /0.9 million in 2023 and 12 million/2 million in 2025. I
L & Z Integrated Farms was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Kano State of Nigeria. L+Z is the first company in Nigeria using Nigerian cows of nomadic herders in the poor northern part of the country (and not imported milk powder) to produce fresh milk, yoghurt of different flavors and kinds including Greek yoghurt, Bread and “Fura da Nono” (a local northern Nigerian food drink). The firm sells its products country-wide through more than 50 active bulk distributors. The milk comes from the company’s own farms (ca. 20% of the inputs) and out-grower farms (ca 80% of the inputs) trained by the company in good agricultural products. The company also links smallholders to other commercial milk farmers. The company works mainly in Kano. Kaduna and Jigawa states. In 2022 the company had a revenue of ₦ 3 billion, projected to increase to ₦5 billion in 2025. The company currently engages about 2000 small holder household dairy farmers. About half of the small holder dairy farmers have between 1 to 5 cows in their herd, but also those who have more than 5 cows belong to the very poor income groups. The company targets always new poor dairy farmers whose income was initially less than ₦20,000. By producing more milk, reducing input costs and getting a good price, the company’s farmers make double the amount they would have made without the company. The company is well respected in the sector and other companies see L&Z Integrated farms as a role model and follow its advice. The company runs interesting women empowerment feature by supporting women entrepreneurs in dairy processing products, and encouraging girls education by paying higher milk prices to mothers that send their girls to school.
Olam is one of the biggest agrobusiness companies in the world. It is incorporated in Singapore, but actually started in Nigeria. The global company group is on a strong growth path, having achieved in 2021 a revenue of 47 billion Singapore Dollar (ca USD 32.9 billion). The company has worldwide 82,000 employees and sources from 826,000 farmers. About 16,5% of the Group’s revenue comes from Africa, mainly from Nigeria, where it generated in 2022 about $1 billion revenue. While the Nigeria business produces mainly wheat products for noodles, only 0.2% of the daily 5.5 million metric tons inputs for these products are sourced from Nigerian farmers, the rest being imported. Only this share where the company directly sources from Nigerian farmers can be considered as IB. Olam’s business philosophy is to expand local production of wheat to enhance the country’s food security. The company uses two routes to generate impact among the poor and low income people: 1) it sources wheat – and some rice and cotton – from farmers all over the country for further processing through the company, and 2) it sells high-quality fish and poultry feed to the farmers, engaging the poor as consumers through a production facility sourcing maize and other products mainly from Kaduna state. Both business lines are designed to increase the income of the farmers the company is directly working with, and can be considered as IB.: The company creates social impact through enhancing the income of the farmers in their immediate value chain, mainly as a supplier model and in some extend also as a consumer model. It is doing so by a) engaging the smallholder farmers as suppliers of wheat, rice and cotton, b) purchasing inputs for the fish and chicken feeds from local farmers, and c) since 2021, selling feeds to fish farmers and poultry farmers for them to make income (involving the poor as consumer).: From the social impact side Olam qualifies as IB mainly because of the large value chain, while there is ample scope for engaging in a more comprehensive business strategy with the farmers and introducing new innovations of pre- and post-harvest support to address income increase and farmers’ risks (as other IB companies do).
Okra solar is a global social enterprise and technology company that works with energy developers and the government to provide electricity to last-mile communities cost-effectively and efficiently. Nigeria has about 83 million people without electricity. These people mostly rely on diesel, kerosene lamps and generators. Okra addresses this problem by providing IoT enabled hardware and software to help energy developers to energise last-mile communities rapidly with mesh-grids, where basically the rich people in a rural settlement can use excel energy from solar panels of the poor and thus cross-subsidize the purchase of solar panels by the poor.
Silvex was incorporated 2014 and has since then transitioned into a larger group. Only the agribusiness part of the company was considered for the IB analysis. Here the firm is engaged through direct production (in-grower and out-grower models). The agrobusiness company is deliberately aiming at increasing farmers’ yields and income through a comprehensive and commercially viable business engagement system with its farmers. In the IB business model the company guarantees to all its farmers minimum 50% off-taking contract and provides top notch quality inputs (seeds, fertilizer, chemicals, irrigation, mechanization and extension services) at only 6% mark up. The company also supports the farmers with tractors (in cooperation with the Tractor Owners Association of Nigeria) and other equipment for clearing the fields, and or mechanization for planting and harvesting (harvesters). It provides training on good agricultural practices and invests in logistical efficiency improvements. It practices regular participatory dialogues with its farmers through townhall meetings, lead farmers and farmer group building, ensuring very efficient layers of close monitoring, supervision and co-ordination of the production processes. The company works in Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Nasarawa States respectively of Nigeria. In 2022 the company processed close to 25,000 metric tons of rice and generated in 2022 a revenue of 9 nillion Naira (ca $11 million). The company works with about 30,000 contact farmers out-grower farmers (for groundnut, sesame and rice production) and additional 2,000 (nearly all being women) in in-grower model (for producing drought resistant rice seedlings, maize and soyabean). The company’s “System of Rice Intensification” (SRI) has resulted in Silvex’s farmers having increased their income by 3 times if compared to prior output in their engagement with the company. The increase is substantial in all crops, but particularly high (375%) in rice (from N17,000-N63,000 monthly income). Recently the company also introduced an interesting women empowerment feature by engaging 800 women (of its 7500 outgrower and 2000 in-grower women farmers) in the pilot of the climate smart parboiling and drying systems, generazting additional income to the poor farmers.
Solar Sisters is a female owned not-for-profit company selling solar products (mainly clean cook-stoves, solar lamps and solar hoe systems) through self-employed women initially trained by the company and then engaged as down-account distributors. Solar Sister is a social enterprise with a not-for-profit bent. Solar Sister is a social enterprise with a not-for-profit bent. The company has three income streams, namely (1) revenue from the sale of solar products through the women entrepreneurs, (2) grant contributions from committed funds (projects)) and (3) donations. The grant share in the Solar Sister’s revenue is about 40%, and the company emphasizes the need to increase the commercial revenue part further. In 2022 the Nigeria n part of the company the company expects to achieve a revenue of N 400 million ($0.37 million) aiming at increasing this to N 600 million by 2025. The distributors typically make 20-25% income from of each sale. The company uses a blended revenue stream to include earned income from sales and grants that mainly cover capacity development and livelihood programs for entrepreneurs. The company works with 3000 women distributors in 2022; however only 20% of them is permanently working. The company’s low IB rating would only qualify as a potential IB. The management admits the current business model is following a not-for-profit social enterprise approach. However, the country director of Solar Sister sees the need to become more commercially sustainable and would welcome IB business coaching to transform solar sister into an IB initiative with higher commercial viability.
Tomato Jos was established in 2014 in Nasarawa state and then moved to Kaduna state in 201 where it started operations started in 2018. The company changed its business model from purchase tomatoes and then selling them to producing tomato paste by getting the inputs from in-growers of its 500-hectare farm and some outgrowers. Tomato paste is the main revenue generating business line. In 2022 will create a revenue of about N600 million ($0.8 million) from the tomato business plus 100 million from soya and maize business. The company’s revenue is expected to increase to 3.5 billion by 2025, of which a decreasing share of then 25 % would come from soya and maize. The company engaged in 2022 about 350 farmers in its on-farm tomato business and additional 1,000 farmers in the maize/soya production line. It is expecting to increase the number of farmers the company is engaging with to 6,000 by 2025, of which it hopes to then have 600 in the on-farm and 4,400 in the off-farm part-time (3-4 months) tomato farming. The company has a clear strategy to transform low productive maize farmers into high value-added tomato farmers, rather than expanding by using substantially more land resources.
Zuma is a Nigerian coffee company sourcing its produce from farmers in the Mambila Plateau Taraba state of North-East Nigeria. While the high-mountain region (1300 meters altitude) is a traditional coffee-planting area, many coffee farmers have abandoned their trees due to low productivity and low-income opportunities. The company generates revenue through buying coffee from contract farmers, cleaning, sorting, roasting, packing the coffee beans and the selling them in bulk through retail shops. The company also trains farmers in technical know-how and provides them with pesticides and fertilizers to increase output. Revenue in 2022 was N 160 million (ca. 0.2 million) from sales of 60 to 70 tons at the cost of about 4.1 million naira per tonne. In 2022 the company had 650 farmers in its direct value chain (95% outgrowers), The company introduced some business innovations through training and input provision; however it can do better in inter-cropping (e.g. bananas nourish coffee well and create additional cash income), tree plantation, marketing, efficiency gains. The company could also do much more on tree plantation thereby contributing positively to biodiversity and climate change. Zuma coffee fulfils the basic critical criteria of an IB but got rather low ratings and is therefore classified as potential IB.
Zambia
ABC Bikes sells motorcycles to rural and semi-urban poor and low-income people. Motorcycles are mostly used for income-generating activities. The company differs from other motorcycle companies by offering flexible payment plans while guaranteeing repairs and availability of service and repair parts. In 2022 the company will achieve a revenue of ZMW 12 million ($0.7 million) and serves 300 BoP households (60% of its sales). The company plans to grow to ZMW 50 million by 2025.
Buffalo Bicycles supplies high-quality bicycles to the rural and peri-urban poor and low-income mainly for productive transport means. The company subsidises the full cost of the durable but expensive bicycles through innovative payment features making them affordable to the poor, delivering them to the poor and low-income, and guaranteeing the availability of service and repair parts. The company expects revenue of ZMW 106 million in 2022 ($6.1 million) and plans to grow to ZMW 170 million by 2025. In 2021 it sold 20,500 bicycles and is estimated to turnover 25,000 by 2025. About 80% of its customers are BoP.
COMACO is a Zambian company that is made up of a farmer extension department, a carbon department, and a business department, backed up by a finance and administration department. COMACO has a large NGO driven program on farmers training, environmental conservation and wildlife protection, and about 54% of its income come from such grants; this part would not be seen as IB and the following analysis only focuses on the commercial business line. The business department purchases crops for cash in its operating areas from 60,000 smallholder farmers, transport these crops to central storage sites and manufactures products under the Its Wild! brand. These It’s Wild! products are distributed and sold locally and internationally at a turnover of ZMW120 Million per year as at end of 2021. COMACO purchase crops from smallholder farmers to the value of 3.5 million USD yearly to support the manufacture of the Its Wild! brand. The business department is important to the COMACO model as it offers secure fare prices for crops grown and recommended, allows the farmers to gain financial incentives for the input from the extension department and sees greater synergy between the carbon departments goals, the farmer, and the sales of the Its Wild! brand. The company has leveraged donor funding for its extension work. The carbon department has recently shared 3,2 million USD with communities for carbon credits. COMACO support 200,000 farmers either with crop market, carbon benefit or extension services.
Dytech is a honey company which plants fruit trees for better quality honey production, giving farmers additional income opportunities as the company processes and markets the fruits into fruit juices, and the is environment being improved by new tree plantations. In 2021 the company had revenue of ZMW 6.5 million ($ 0.4 million), expected to grow to $1.5 million by 2025. It is expecting to work with 30,500 farmers (2025), up from 9,750 in 2022 and 5,700 in 2021. The company is a highly innovative and very good IB model in agrobusiness as it addresses many BoP risks and creates substantial income increases for the BoP.
Good Nature Agro produces high-quality agricultural seeds that are drought resistant and guarantee its farmers high income and access to finance. In 2022 the company is expecting a revenue of ZMW 155 million ($9 million), sourcing from 26,200 farmers and selling seeds to additional 131,200 farmers. The company has specific BoP targeting and women empowerment features. By paying premium prices and providing comprehensive farmers’ coaching and inputs, the company creates high income (increases three times more than maize farmers) for the farmers in its value chains. Like many other companies, this is an excellent example of IB in agrobusiness.
Kukula Commodity Finance is a very innovative fintech company providing cash against flexible repayment via commodities. The company is actively involved in lending and/or providing agricultural inputs to 1,500 farmers (up from 800 in 2021) and is projected to grow to 5,000 in 2025. About 70% of the farmers it is working with are BoP. In 2022 the company had a lending of ZMW 34.4 million ($2 million), up from ZMW 8.6 million ($0.5 million) in 2021 and is projected to grow to ZMW 170 million ($10 million) by 2025. The company has good and flexible pricing. Commodity finance is a highly relevant product design for the BoP.
Kukula Solar provides innovative pay-as-you-go financing for solar systems especially for productive use (e.g. solar pumps, solar egg incubators), in addition to household consumptive use (solar cookers, solar lights). The focus of the company on the productive use of energy (rather than purely solar home systems) is a good addition to the market and brings the company certain comparative advantages of selling multiple times to the same customers. Like other successful solar companies, Kukula Solar offers rent-to-own payments, is close to its client and engages local technicians for guaranteed maintenance services. For 2022 the company is expecting a revenue of ZMW 37.8 million ($2.2 million), up from $0.3 million in 2019 and $1,8 million in 2021. The company plans to grow to $27.4 million by 2025. In 2021, the company sold to 27,400 customers, 92% of them being from the BoP income groups.
Little Sun is a solar home company with a revenue of about ZMW 5 million ($0.3 million in 2022), and a very good plan for business growth ($0,035 million in 2019, $0.1 million in 2021, $0,8 million in 2023, and $2 million in 2025). In 2022 the company will sell to about 4,300 rural households of which 70% are low-income and 4% poor people, while the remaining is better off. The company’s strategy is to reduce the sale of solar home systems in its portfolio from currently 90% to 75% by 2025 and add new product lines instead.
Live Clean is a sanitation company, that provides public toilets and water for hand and vegetable cleaning in public markets, currently in 2 Zambian cities. The company is breaking even in 2022 and targets to achieve net profitability of 15% by 2025. An additional innovative business feature is the renting of advertisement space at the toilets thus substantially increasing commercial viability. Currently, the toilet facilities have 400-450 visitors per day per site, hence 0.77 million visitors per year, of which it is estimated 60% of the market customers and 5% of the traders in the markets are poor, 35%/25% are low-income people and 35%/70% are from the better off income groups. The price is very affordable at ZMW 3 per toilet use and ZMW 10 per bucket of water for dish, hand, and vegetable washing. In 2021 with its 5 sites the company had a revenue of about ZMW 2 million ($0.1 million), and it wishes to expand to 10 sites by 2025.
Medeem is a company creating land rights for the poor in communal land (mostly traditional chief lands, some urban lands), thereby substantially enhancing the productive use of land. While there are various land rights companies in the country, Medeem is special by offering better prices and particularly more secured land contracts and doing so in a highly participatory and conflict-avoiding interactive process with the traditional leaders and the villagers. In 2021 the company had revenue of ZMW 4.5 million ($0.8 million) and is expecting ZW 15 million ($0.9 million) by 2025. The company broke even by 2021 and expects profitability of 7% in 2022 and 30% in 2025. In 2021 the company made 10,000 land contracts and it is expecting 20,000 by 2025. 55% of its customers are very poor, 30% poor and 10% low-income households.
Mwabu is a very interesting company addressing the severe shortage of schoolbooks in the country. Instead of selling oriented schoolbooks, the company has designed affordable and specific tablet-based learning materials. This substantially reduces schoolbook costs. The tablet is designed around a big screen allowing 12-15 children of different families in rural areas to use the tablet at a go. The company sells its application licenses to individuals and group distributors such as NGOs, further reducing the costs for the poor. The company introduced flexible rent-to-own payment systems allowing the otherwise expensive tablet to be affordable even for the poor who typically engage in purchase agreements. The company, in its sale strategy and to reduce distribution costs, goes particularly to NGOs and government agencies. In 2022 the company will have a revenue of ZMW 35 million ($2 million), up from ZMW 29 million ($1.7 million) in 2021, By 2021 cumulatively the company sold 38,000 tablets and additional 2,975 licenses, which were used by about 250,000-550,000 learners of school grades 1 to 7. The company is geographically concentrated and has so far served 500-700 schools in Zambia. A key problem for the company is the high import and value added taxes making the product much more expensive than necessary and thus challenging the growth of private sector solutions to government development objectives. Mwabu is a company that would benefit a lot from smart tax incentives and public procurement prioritization as proposed under the IBeeZ.
Nature’s Nectar is a honey company working in the North-Western, Eastern and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia producing mainly for export to the USA, the Republic of South Africa, and the EU. The company has a revenue of ZMW 6 million ($0.35 million) in 2021 and is expecting to grow to ZMW 29 million ($1.7 million) by 2025. By 2021 the company sourced from over 2000 honey farmers, up from 200 in 2018 and projected to engage 5,000 farmers by 2025. 100% of the honey suppliers are from the BoP community, and currently, Nature’s Nectar has over 24,000. To save the forest, the company has an agreement with the chiefdoms it works in to supply sustainable and long-lasting beehives to farmers. Nature’s Nectar trains farmers on the management of these long-lasting beehives and then pays a premium to farmers for honey produced to incentivize sustainable production practices. The use of these long-lasting beehives enhances their environmental and climate impact by placing beehives in protected areas agreed on with communities and saving indigenous trees being cut to make traditional bark beehives. The use of these hives also improves honey quality which therefore also justifies the premium price being paid to farmers. Nature’s Nectar also works with 50% female farmers, a deliberate impact point to ensure females can participate in a typically male-dominated activity.
Onyx is an e-trading company selling only proven and relevant products for the poor. The company addresses the affordability, and accessibility of the products by offering rent-to-own payments and bringing the products to common distribution places. It reduces its distribution costs by working mainly with cooperatives and other similar groupings. The business model is to aggregate demand through e-commerce, concentrate on quality and BoP relevance, assemble products, and distribute to intermediaries close to the customer. The company is open to distributing products from other IB companies and shoulder transport costs if the products are relevant and affordable for the poor. In 2021 Onyx had revenue of ZMW 2.2 million ($0.13 million) and will achieve ZMW 3.4 million ($0.2 million) in 2022 and ZMW 8.6 million ($0.5 million) in 2025. In 2021, the company had 5,700 customers and it is expected to grow to 10,500 by 2025. About 15% of the customers are from the very poor, 45% from the poor, 30% from low-income and 10% from better-off income groups. 85% of the customers are women.
PremierCon is an agrobusiness in the Northwest of the country buying cassava to make starch for the nearby mining companies. With about 9,000 MT of produce, the company will make revenue of ZMW 127 million ($7.4 million) in 2022 and is expected to grow to ZMW 251 million ($14,6 million) in 2025. The company sources from about 4,500 (2022) farmers, up from 353 in 2021 and will substantially increase its sourcing to 15,000 by 2025. Most of those farmers are very poor and poor, and the company is paying a premium price. The company could pay the farmers much better if it could further process the starch as the mining companies do; however, at the moment this is not possible because it is a cartel-like market. By attempting to do so, the company would immediately lose its customers and hence its profitability. However, to increase income for the poor in its supply chain (and higher profitability for the company) it wishes to go in that direction.
Seba Foods is a large agribusiness focusing on nutrition products made from soya replacing expensive meat consumed by the poor. The company benefits the poor both by engaging them in supplying soya and other products and by selling to them nutritional soya products. In 2021 the company engaged about 2,000 farmers in its supply chain and will increase this to 12,000 in 2025. 90% of the supplying farmers are BoP and 45% of them are women. On the sales side, the company sells in Zambia and abroad. For Zambia, it estimates about 1.3 million customers, 80-90% of them being BoP and 60% of the consumers being women. In the supply model, the company practices comprehensive agrobusiness contract farming substantially increasing farmers’ income (30% more than other farmers in the same field), paying a 10% premium, and reducing farmers’ risks by providing drought-resistant seeds from Good Nature Agro. The company will double its already large revenue (about $20 million in 2022) by 2025. Most of the growth going forward will come from sales of soya meat and new product lines like soya milk in the USA, Republic of South Africa, and EC markets.
Vyazala is a fish processing company buying all fish from its contract farmers, providing cold chains and markets. While the company pays the final market price, fish farmers with Vyazala have about 40% higher income than other fish farmers. However, for most of the farmers fish farming alone (a part-time job only) is not sufficient to bring them out of poverty. This is because the company shoulders the farmers’ risks of selling in unknown markets (time, transport costs, spoilt products, fish processing) and producing on its risks (Vyazala provides quality feed inputs, and advises on fishpond construction and management). The social reach of the company is still relatively small (100 farmers in 2021), but the company is targeting 1,000 contract farmers by 2025. In 2021 the company had revenue of ZMW 3,7 million ($0.2 million) and it is aiming at ZMW 39 million ($1.7 million) in 2025. The company, while viable, is still having some challenges with its profitability.
WID Energy is an IB initiative (social enterprise) offering solar home systems. The company sells through 600 rural sales (38% of them being women) agents being in immediate contact with the customers (95% of them being BoP and 90% being women) all over the country (no geographical focus) substantially increasing distribution costs. It has 10 service centres in 4 provinces. As a result, distribution costs are high, and the company only served 2,700 customers (2019) which is projected to increase to 10,000 by 2025. The products are of high quality and the pay-as-you-go system makes them affordable for the poor. The company has a revenue of ZMW 10,6 million ($0,6 million) in 2022, up from ZMW 7,5 million ($0.4 million) in 2019. The company has set overambitious growth targets through 2025. While the company has challenges in commercial viability, the management confirmed that the double emphasis on providing income for women by distributing solar home systems, and the low product diversification are constant challenges for the company’s business return, sustainability, and growth.
Wuchi Wami is a honey company in the North-West of the company producing about 200 MT of honey every year. The company work currently (2022) with 544 honey farmers (40% of them being women) and wishes to scale this to 10,000 by 2025. The annual income of the farmers is relatively low (500 ZMW per bucket of 40 kg honey harvest = 17 kg processed honey) although the company substantially increased the productivity of the beehives (formerly, 3 hives were necessary to fill 1 bucket of honey, now only 1 hive is needed) and pays premium price compared with other competitors. Although honey farming brings some needed cash into rural communities, this income is not sufficient to bring the very poor honey farmers out of poverty. In 2021 the company had revenue of ZMW 1.8 million ($0.1 million) and it hopes to increase this five times to about ZMW10 million. The company was rated as a potential IB due to its strong IB intent, but low commercial viability, social results, and minimal business innovations
Ghana
While many companies have been shortlisted by the consultants, a detailed company analysis is not yet done for Ghana, and results may only be available from August 2024 onwards.
Many more IB likely
Note that the Landscape Study is not a complete market overview; it only provides an example of the IB market. Many more companies may have or could be encouraged to transform into IB business lines: IB assessments should go on starting in 2023, and more companies can be found, especially when IB is better known in Zambia; A deliberate policy for promoting such companies is established; Strategic messaging is given and finally, incentive programmes are set up. We recommend institutionalizing and finding more IB companies by setting up a formal IB Accreditation System and creating IB public incentives for such accredited IB companies.