Ivory Coast: Arlette Ophelia Koffi dreams of becoming Africa’s largest producer of Ganoderma mushrooms | African Development Bank

Arlette Ophélia Koffi, a 27-year-old graduate with a degree in business management specializing in entrepreneurship, is currently finalizing her company Ivoire Myciculture Distribution (IMD).

The start-up started to take shape when a friend pointed her to the Youth Work Office (AEJ). The agency, linked to the country’s Ministry of Youth Affairs, launched a campaign to recruit young people interested in working in agriculture.

“I heard about the Enable Youth program through a friend. I went straight to the website to apply and after an interview I was selected. And it didn’t cost me a dime,” she recalls.

Thanks to Engage the youth Côte d’Ivoire program, which receives €1.4 million from the African Development Bank, Koffi underwent a six-month incubation period at the Higher School of Agronomy (ESA) in Yamoussoukro, the country’s political capital. The incubation program offers the opportunity to develop advanced technical skills related to the agricultural sector.

“After my baccalaureate, I obtained an advanced technical diploma in management and a diploma in entrepreneurship. I visited a number of agricultural production sites and then I chose mushrooms, especially oyster mushrooms and ganoderma, a medicinal fungus,” she explains.

In addition, she plans to grow dried oyster mushrooms and combine the ganoderma fungi with natural local plants, such as savanna tea (lippia multiflora), lemonella, mint, ginger, some turmeric and cinnamon.

“These are all medicinal plants, with benefits for our physical health. I really want to promote African plants,” she notes, explaining that she will focus on the Ivorian and sub-regional market first.

“As we come to the end of the incubation period, I am developing my business and will become the largest industrial producer of ganoderma in Africa,” she says.

Tanguy Kouakou, Ophelia’s business partner, is a technical agricultural engineer with six years of agribusiness experience. Tea Engage the youth The Côte d’Ivoire program has given him the opportunity to develop his own business and become an agricultural entrepreneur.

He is interested in the commercial production of oyster mushrooms. They are high in carbohydrates, protein and fiber, all of which are found in the composition of various human organs. They also have significant benefits in preventing thrombosis and stroke. Finally, they regulate blood pressure and blood sugar levels in the body,” he explains. In the future, Kouakou wants to market canned and fresh oyster mushrooms and broths, which can be used to season meals.

“I worked in a company before I decided to start my own business in the agricultural sector. And I want to encourage young people to go back to the country,” he says. “The sector is a good source of employment. To succeed you need a new idea and good training, and then you need to develop your business plan.”

For the director of the Higher School of Agronomy in Yamoussoukro, the six-month training period should enable participants to develop an agricultural entrepreneur’s attitude and acquire farm management skills.

Tea Engage the youthThe Ivory Coast program aims to strengthen the capacity of young graduates to establish businesses in agricultural value chains, in one of the top ten countries with the highest growth rates in recent years. The program also encourages young graduates to return to the country. For example, cocoa farming provides employment for up to two million people in Ivory Coast, the largest producer in the world.