Elimane Dramé pioneers local cashew processing

Elimane Dramé is a small businessman in the Casamance region of Senegal, whose economy has been depressed for years due to the insecurity of civil conflict. When EnterpriseWorks, backed by USAID, appeared in the Casamance in July 2001 to promote new economic opportunities in one of the region's biggest production sectors -- cashew nuts -- Mr. Dramé was one of the first to seize the idea. Giving producers a profitable alternative to selling their raw cashews at low prices to foreign processors, this project aims to introduce a processing industry to add value to the product before it leaves Senegal, thus increasing local people's share of the income from cashew production. Each participant is expected to make the necessary investments in equipment, raw materials, and labor, while EnterpriseWorks provides the technical training and market development skills required and also trains local artisans to produce and sell the relevant specialized equipment.

Mr. Dramé initially followed the project's work on the improvement and local manufacturing of the cashew processing equipment. He was then the first to ask to be part of EnterpriseWorks' cashew processing training program and the first to buy the equipment from the local manufacturer trained for the purpose. After the training he was the first to get a building for his private cashew processing unit, and finally the first to start processing and selling finished cashew nuts at the end of November 2001, only one month after the end of the training. Since then others have followed his example.

Mr. Dramé invested approximately US$1,450 in his processing unit, and after only two months, recovered his investment through nut sales on the formal and informal Senegalese market. He employs six workers, four of them women. His biggest problem now is satisfying the growing demand.

Mr. Dramé is already thinking about the future of the business and how to increase his capacity by re-investing his profits to acquire more processing equipment, and a more sophisticated packaging machine so that he can better market his products. When he saturates his local market, EnterpriseWorks has more commercial contacts for him both within Senegal and internationally, and he is developing contacts of his own via the internet with traders in Taiwan, Morocco, and Tunisia. His long-term goal is the export market.

In addition to the business and technical assistance, the principal reasons for Mr. Dramé's success are his high level of motivation, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his long-term vision. He is dedicated to producing a high-value product that will be lucrative for himself and his employees and suppliers, and recognized for its quality by customers both nearby and on other continents. The combined effect of Elimane Dramé's efforts and those of his fellow project participants in the Casamance will be a reputation for the region as a source of a high-quality product that brings in the kind of revenues that the population needs to overcome the economic effects of civil conflict.