2SCALE Thematic Papers Not By Technology and Money Alone | Page 29

11. Adama Dissa,
a champion of inclusive
maize agribusiness in
Sikasso
By Faoussa Tadjou,
trainer-mentor, Mali
Key themes: PO & Cluster development, PO-Firm relationship, Sustainability of coaching services
Maize-Mali PPP Summary
SONAF is the lead
company of the maize-
Mali partnership aiming
to increase local sourcing
of yellow maize from
smallholder producers
and their organisations.
SONAF trades yellow
maize grain with major
food and feed processing
industries in Mali and
surrounding countries. The author focuses her story on Adama Dissa, who needs
strong partners to develop SONAF, his maize marketing
company. To this end, he commits to putting in place a
decentralised framework of efficient clusters. Dissa realises
that for this set-up to become sustainable, coaching in
soft skills is critical. He is an unusual entrepreneur as he
attends as many of the cluster coaching sessions as he
can, considering that his business and also he himself will
benefit (directly or indirectly) from this process. As the
2SCALE project comes to an end, Dissa is keen to contribute
to looking for options to embed coaching services within
the business model.
It is 8:30 a.m. on this 8th of November, 2016. We are about
15 people in a workshop room at the hotel Cinquantenaire
in Sikasso, Mali. The workshop starts with a session on
contracting and negotiation. This is the first time I am fa-
cilitating a learning workshop for 2SCALE, since being en-
gaged by 2SCALE as a trainer-mentor for the yellow maize
SONAF partnership in Sikasso.
Youssouf Traoré, the partnership facilitator opens the work-
shop by saying: “Now that everybody is here, we can start”.
29
This surprises me a bit, so I inquire about the director of
SONAF who had planned to participate – at least at the start
of the workshop. Youssouf replies: “Indeed, there he is”,
and points at a man seated in the centre of the room. And
he is right, he is clearly there – Mr Adama Dissa, the Direc-
tor General of SONAF. Somehow, I had failed to notice him.
And so began my discovery of a rather exceptional man.
Adama Dissa is unlike any other director I know. He is a
businessman, yet full of empathy and able to relate to the