West Africa

The members of the Muoho Cocoa Farmer Group are hard at work, even as the sound of their laughter echoes through the cocoa forest. They sit around a huge mound of harvested cocoa pods. Each one must be broken open to remove the pulp and beans inside, a job that…

In his first overseas trip as World Bank Group president, Jim Yong Kim visited Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa last week.

In Nicaragua, Iveth Juárez, a small business owner who processes and sells cereal to the local market, had attended seminars, workshops, courses and training sessions on accounting and finance. But at the end of each session, she always felt the same sense of confusion.

Like all of TechnoServe’s business plan competitions, Africa’s first Believe Begin Become, held in 2006, was the work of many partners. More than 70 supporters— ranging from Ghanaian academics and businesses to international corporations— contributed money, products or services. This ensured that by the time Joseph Tackie took first prize…

Isaac Bohulu’s idea for a natural medicine business was literally rooted in his backyard. The pharmacist from Accra, Ghana used extracts from a large Neem tree behind his house to create Neemfresh, an herbal mouthwash. After entering his idea to produce a commercial version of this mouthwash in TechnoServe’s…

In just two years, Jemima Akusika Hansen has risen from a part-time data entry clerk to the head of human resources at a cashew factory in Ghana. Her progress demonstrates how the cashew industry can create new opportunities for thousands of women in West Africa.