(Ecofin Agency) - The commitment comes over a year after WE! Fund committed funds in a bakery in Senegal. 

Women's Economic Empowerment Fund (WE! Fund), a fund investing in Sub-Saharan African women, recently committed XOF250 million (US$389,848) to Dialibatou Invest, a Senegalese coffee roaster. The investment agreement was signed on Thursday, August 4.  

“Dialibatou Invest is an attractive project that not only contributes to the industrialization of the Senegalese economy to stimulate local consumption but also helps reduce the coffee shortage experienced in its local market.  Dialibatou has taken up the challenge to conquer national and international markets,”  said Babacar Gning, president of WE! Fund.

The commitment comes more than a year after WE! Fund’s last financing cooperation. In May 2021, the investment vehicle jointly set up by  Senegalese Sovereign Strategic Investment Fund (Fonsis) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (Uncdf) committed XOF243 million to the Senegalese bakery Mburu, which manufactures pastries with locally-produced flours.  

The investment will enable  Dialibatou Invest to increase its production capacity -by building a new production unit in the Thiés industrial zone- and expand its marketing activities nationwide. 

Chamberline MOKO