Mali Agri-business Incubation Hub incubatee wins entrepreneurship contest
Ms Diakite shares her experience with a group of youth at a conference organized by MAIH. Photo: ICRISAT
Ms Aissata Diakite, an incubatee of Mali Agri-business Incubation Hub (MAIH), won an entrepreneurship contest for her project Zabbaan Holding that produces juices (smoothies and cocktails). The juices have a shelf life of one year and can be stored at room temperature without losing flavor or taste. The production, transformation, standardization, marketing and distribution processes of the products is all done locally in Mali.
Ms Diakite represents a group of 10 Malian young entrepreneurs living in France. She has won the contest of the Mali Diaspora Entrepreneurship Program during an event organized by Fanaday Entertainment on 10 September at Bamako. Ms Diakite has returned back to France for the acquisition of processing equipment for her new enterprise.
MAIH has assisted in the preparation and the feasibility studies of the winning project. The food technologies laboratory of the Mali ‘Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) has provided her assistance for the production of juice samples. Hotels like the Azalai Salam Hotel group and other customers have already shown interest in the products.
About MAIH
MAIH, a pioneering public-private partnership, addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers through incubation services including access to technology know-how, skills development, training, and business development, access to office space, equipment facilities and financial resources. One important target of MAIH is entrepreneurship and job creation especially amongst the youth through entrepreneurship development programs. The headquarters are located at ICRISAT, Samanko. The operations for Youth Business Incubation; and Incubation units of Seed Business and Agro Processing Business are carried out from ‘Institut Polytechnique Rural (IPR), Katibougu and IER, Sotuba, respectively.
MAIH is promoted by IER, ICRISAT, ‘Institut Polytechnique Rural (IPR), CORAF/WECARD (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development), Agri Business Incubation Network (AAIN), UniBRAIN Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).
