The area where I live is called Koudougou. It is located in the western part of the country, 100 km from the capital, Ouagadougou. As stated in this profile, my name is Weindate Sylvain Yameogo. I am 24 years old and am the oldest of a family of three children. I lost my father when I was nine, on December 15th 1996. After his death, my mother who was a housekeeper was forced to work even more in order to feed us. Our situation was made even more difficult with my younger brother’s illness. From this point on, I spent the summers working to help my mother and to pay school for my siblings and I.
Our situation did not improve and my mother passed away from a long illness on September 13th 2003. After her death, I took on the responsibility of caring for my younger brother and sister. I continued to attend public school and obtained my license in 2009. After graduating, I enrolled in the geography program at the university level to better support my siblings in their schooling. I chose geography for the ability to quickly obtain a diploma even though my dream was to become a pharmacist. Unfortunately, an extended strike in the geography department affected the availability of classes. It became impossible to attend the regular program within the planned graduation timeframe. This situation was conflicting with my desire to help my brother and sister succeed. So I decided to start a small scale chicken farming business to occupy the free time created by the professor’s absences and the continuous strikes on campus.
More importantly, I made this decision to create a revenue stream allowing me to fulfill my duties of oldest son to support my brother and sister. With the revenue from the enterprise, I am in a better position to provide for my brother and sister, pay for medical appointments and prescription medication for my ill brother. I also buy material needed for my geography training, internet access to be able to visit the Zidisha website, etc. I am very passionate about my small experience in chicken farming and am interested in turning it into a true professional and scientific career.
In my opinion, the Zidisha concept constitutes a good stepping stone. Ambitious entrepreneurs like me don’t always have the opportunity to see our dreams come true since the access to credit is complicated in the country. First and foremost I would like to congratulate Zidisha. If their system didn’t exist it would need to be created. I am very motivated, ready for work and think of myself as an innovator. My hope is to be successful and be seen as a model for generations to come as an inspiration to develop my country and all of Africa.
In my business I produce eggs, fertilizer and poultry meat. The demand for eggs is very high since there are very few urban producers. In my area there are also a lot of vegetable growers that make use of the chicken manure for their gardens. My production system allows me to produce eggs and to sell the chickens once they start to be less productive. This period coincides with the many celebrations around the end of the year when the demand is very high with no difficulty to sell the poultry meat.
The clients are interested in my products because of my approach and my commercial practices. They always find it advantageous to buy from me because I know how much competitors sell their products for and I offer a better price, even if it means a smaller profit margin for myself. I prefer building a bigger client base, faithful, which will allow me flexibility in selling my products in the future. In addition, clients coming to me on their own will lower my transportation costs and overall risks. My activities are commercially feasible because the main product – the eggs – is always in high demand. For example, the daily average maintenance cost of a laying hen is 33.16f CFA which will be sold for 80f CFA (price can vary with market activity). The price of the egg is higher than the cost of feeding the hen and providing medical attention. In addition, we sell the manure and the poultry meat at the end of the laying period. All these steps contribute to the documented profitability of the business and balance the occasional broken eggs or low rate of oviposition. Our risks primarily lie in the delivery process where eggs are sometimes damaged.
With 120 hens I can produce 90 eggs which translate into a laying rate of 75%. With those results, we have:
- 90 eggs * 80f CFA/egg * 30 days = sales figure of 216.000f CFA for a net revenue under intermediary consumption conditions.
- 120 chickens for poultry meat * 33.16f CFA/chicken * 30 days = 119.376f CFA
For total revenue of 96.624f CFA, minus the electricity and water costs of 10.500f CFA, for a monthly net profit of 86.125f CFA
Hello everyone! I am very happy to be able to give you my news once more. My business grows little by little thanks to your financial and moral support. I was able to repay my last loan and I would like to ask for your support in funding my fourth loan through the Zidisha platform. I intend to increase the number of laying hens on my chicken farm to increase my egg sales because demand is always strong. In addition I can acquire a good supply of feed because it is relatively less expensive and more available during this period in our country. This is a good investment and will produce more profit.
I count a great deal on your support, and as a Zidisha volunteer mentor in my city of Koudougou I must set a good example and work hard to succeed for the wonderful future with Zidisha that you continue to support. Thank you for believing in the Zidisha platform and for supporting my projects. God bless you!
Sylvain Weindate Yameogo
Zidisha Volunteer Mentor in Koudougou, Burkina Faso
Increase number of laying hens on farm
The area where I live is called Koudougou. It is located in the western part of the country, 100 km from the capital, Ouagadougou. As stated in this profile, my name is Weindate Sylvain Yameogo. I am 24 years old and am the oldest of a family of three children. I lost my father when I was nine, on December 15th 1996. After his death, my mother who was a housekeeper was forced to work even more in order to feed us. Our situation was made even more difficult with my younger brother’s illness. From this point on, I spent the summers working to help my mother and to pay school for my siblings and I.
Our situation did not improve and my mother passed away from a long illness on September 13th 2003. After her death, I took on the responsibility of caring for my younger brother and sister. I continued to attend public school and obtained my license in 2009. After graduating, I enrolled in the geography program at the university level to better support my siblings in their schooling. I chose geography for the ability to quickly obtain a diploma even though my dream was to become a pharmacist. Unfortunately, an extended strike in the geography department affected the availability of classes. It became impossible to attend the regular program within the planned graduation timeframe. This situation was conflicting with my desire to help my brother and sister succeed. So I decided to start a small scale chicken farming business to occupy the free time created by the professor’s absences and the continuous strikes on campus.
More importantly, I made this decision to create a revenue stream allowing me to fulfill my duties of oldest son to support my brother and sister. With the revenue from the enterprise, I am in a better position to provide for my brother and sister, pay for medical appointments and prescription medication for my ill brother. I also buy material needed for my geography training, internet access to be able to visit the Zidisha website, etc. I am very passionate about my small experience in chicken farming and am interested in turning it into a true professional and scientific career.
In my opinion, the Zidisha concept constitutes a good stepping stone. Ambitious entrepreneurs like me don’t always have the opportunity to see our dreams come true since the access to credit is complicated in the country. First and foremost I would like to congratulate Zidisha. If their system didn’t exist it would need to be created. I am very motivated, ready for work and think of myself as an innovator. My hope is to be successful and be seen as a model for generations to come as an inspiration to develop my country and all of Africa.
In my business I produce eggs, fertilizer and poultry meat. The demand for eggs is very high since there are very few urban producers. In my area there are also a lot of vegetable growers that make use of the chicken manure for their gardens. My production system allows me to produce eggs and to sell the chickens once they start to be less productive. This period coincides with the many celebrations around the end of the year when the demand is very high with no difficulty to sell the poultry meat.
The clients are interested in my products because of my approach and my commercial practices. They always find it advantageous to buy from me because I know how much competitors sell their products for and I offer a better price, even if it means a smaller profit margin for myself. I prefer building a bigger client base, faithful, which will allow me flexibility in selling my products in the future. In addition, clients coming to me on their own will lower my transportation costs and overall risks. My activities are commercially feasible because the main product – the eggs – is always in high demand. For example, the daily average maintenance cost of a laying hen is 33.16f CFA which will be sold for 80f CFA (price can vary with market activity). The price of the egg is higher than the cost of feeding the hen and providing medical attention. In addition, we sell the manure and the poultry meat at the end of the laying period. All these steps contribute to the documented profitability of the business and balance the occasional broken eggs or low rate of oviposition. Our risks primarily lie in the delivery process where eggs are sometimes damaged.
With 120 hens I can produce 90 eggs which translate into a laying rate of 75%. With those results, we have:
- 90 eggs * 80f CFA/egg * 30 days = sales figure of 216.000f CFA for a net revenue under intermediary consumption conditions.
- 120 chickens for poultry meat * 33.16f CFA/chicken * 30 days = 119.376f CFA
For total revenue of 96.624f CFA, minus the electricity and water costs of 10.500f CFA, for a monthly net profit of 86.125f CFA
Hello everyone! I am very happy to be able to give you my news once more. My business grows little by little thanks to your financial and moral support. I was able to repay my last loan and I would like to ask for your support in funding my fourth loan through the Zidisha platform. I intend to increase the number of laying hens on my chicken farm to increase my egg sales because demand is always strong. In addition I can acquire a good supply of feed because it is relatively less expensive and more available during this period in our country. This is a good investment and will produce more profit.
I count a great deal on your support, and as a Zidisha volunteer mentor in my city of Koudougou I must set a good example and work hard to succeed for the wonderful future with Zidisha that you continue to support. Thank you for believing in the Zidisha platform and for supporting my projects. God bless you!
Sylvain Weindate Yameogo
Zidisha Volunteer Mentor in Koudougou, Burkina Faso