SFA: a Solidarity Banker in Senegal

The Senegalese Food Chain Association (SFA) is a social enterprise that promotes the production of quality rice by smallholder farmers in the Senegal River Valley through a long-term partnership. SFA provides them with access to financing and technical support, then processes the paddy into white rice and sells it on the Senegalese market.

THE ORGANIZATION AND THE FOUNDATION

Since 2013, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation has been a shareholder in Sénégalaise des Filières Alimentaires. The SFA benefited from the Solidarity Bankers program: a high-level expert, Head of the Group Purchasing Information System Project Management division at Crédit Agricole SA, spent two weeks in the field to support the SFA in optimizing its information system.

THE CONTEXT OF THE MISSION

In an effort to expand its business, SFA sought outside expertise and support from an information systems expert to develop a technology application for local teams to better manage and optimize their operations and producer monitoring. Our Crédit Agricole expert visited SFA factories in Saint Louis and Dakar and conducted an assessment of the information system through interviews with various SFA stakeholders. She also worked with them on digitizing the rice collection chain to optimize productivity and yields.

THE RESULTS

By visiting the field, she was able to understand the different stages of rice harvesting and processing and offer her recommendations. Thanks to the implementation of the management information system under development and a weighing application integrated into the Sage software, the Solidarity Banker has enabled SFA to improve its industrial activity, production conditions, and technical and financial monitoring of producers. Since improving its production system, SFA's ambition is to double its volume of activity by 2022, while supporting the local rice sector in Senegal.

This article was published in "Our technical assistance system", accessible here

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