Young Entrepreneurship in Comoros

Farmer Biamrifi at the American Corner ''I didn’t like school when I was a young boy. I got a college education by chance,’’ Fayçal Biamrifi said in a presentation held on Thursday 12 October 2023 at the American Corner – a building of the University of Comoros – in Moroni. It’s the first meeting of this kind titled ‘‘ Parcours, Oeuvre et Perspectives d’Avenir ’’ i.e. Career History, Work and Future Prospects organized by Abdou Mroivili, the educational adviser who worked for the US embassy in Comoros. Mroivili’s teamwork includes Ibrahim Mohamed from YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) association in Comoros and Ahmed Bacar from Joso (Journalisme de Solutions, Solutions Journalism in English). YALI is the American government initiative to invest in the next generation of African leaders. Its aim is to develop leadership and entrepreneurship skills and connects participants with their peers and with the American people. Solutions Journalism is an approach to news reporting that focuses on the responses to social issues as well as the problems themselves. Solutions stories explain how and why responses are working or not working. For instance, it can explain a problem and find the solution by giving the examples of young entrepreneurs who succeed in business. Joso is not interested in global news. It focuses on responses to problems that are newsworthy for youngsters instead. According to Mroivili, there is a US program of USD 300 million that aims to develop agriculture and livestock farming in partnership with FAO in order to achieve food self-sufficiency in Comoros. Biamrifi was born in the village of Boingoma in the island of Mohéli. He got a Bachelor degree in Environment from a university of Madagascar. He was hired by the Telecom public company in 2010. He used to work at the Logistics Department. Biamrifi refuses to work under political pressure, especially during the 2010 general elections. Thus, the young cadre was often posted in different remote areas of the country from 2011 to 2018 because of his ‘political disobedience’. After been suspended from his job for eleven months in 2019, Biamrifi has decided to work for himself in the agriculture business. He first worked with his father by renting five hectares of land in Mohéli. He had the chance to get freely a tractor, but he had to pay the fuel charges. Despite his lack of training in agriculture, the corona virus lockdown of 2020 and 2021, some water and transportation problems, the young farmer has become the first producer of banana, pineapple, and watermelon in Comoros. Concerning his production of bananas, he uses bleach – a technical method that kills all germs in a hall – before planting the banana seeds in the warm soil. Biamrifi works with a team of 19 youngsters. They set up an agricultural cooperative. He takes 40% of the annual income and the remaining for his co-workers. He thinks that gardening market (vegetables) is also profitable. He criticizes the public authorities for not helping those who invest in the agricultural sector. ‘‘We need a bank dedicated to farmers because conventional financial institutions do not trust us,’’ he said. Even if no one knows what the future has in store for us, the young entrepreneur is still optimistic. He hopes to increase his production and value add his product by selling crisps, jam and straw juice in the national and international markets. The Comorian Blog, 12 October 2023, Chami Mouzawar, Contributing Writer