Savonor

Savonor is the market leader in soap and edible oil in Burundi . What began in the 1970s as a small factory; grew steadily and became a company with more than 1500 employees and 35 products available to customers. Savonor has kept a steady growth and is now a fully integrated company; from oil palm plantations, palm oil refining to soap and edible oil production and distribution. It has more than 800 hundreds hectares of oil palms, 3 oil extraction units, a palm oil refinery, several soap manufacturing units and a fleet of trucks for distribution. It has 40 distributions points in the whole of Burundi and the products are exported to DRC and Tanzania.

Project Description

Savonor has partnered with FENACOBU, an experienced microfinance organization to scale its loan scheme to financially excluded farmers in the Kumoso region. The scheme will help farmers increase the yields of existing oil palm and new sunflower plantations

Key Innovations

Key innovations include the partnership between an agribusiness company and a microfinance organization to offer financial and extension services to farmers, the use of mobile technology and the process &return fertilizers concept.