Kanybek was formed in1998, in Rank in the Northern part of Sudan. Kanybek deals in agriculture, they cultivate cassava, maize, and sorghum in Rank, but then in 2003, they expanded it in Malakal in the same field. Kanybek went ahead and introduced a bakery in Malakal that is in the year 2007, also in Bor. They are now dealing in the bakery and sorghum, cassava and maize milling; they have managed to locate their office in Juba. The project expanded as it got funding from the USADF in the year 2018.
Kanybek Bakery Staff in Juba with their Business Manager; Mr Godfrey Kapek
The business adapted well with the pandemic, educating their staff and members and finding an efficient way of continuing their business such as the staff rotations in the bakeries and the hand-washing station they placed at the bakeries selling point for both staff and customers. The Kanybek group will be launching their branch in the next two months, which will be May as it comes to a close.
Kanybek’s Bakery is also one of the cheapest bakery’s in Juba, 400ssp for a bag of bread (which contains 10 pieces of bread), using about 13- 20 50KG sacks where 1 sack produces 1,000 pieces of bread, Kanybek produces about 13,000 to 20,000 pieces of bread in a day. The group is working on opening a new bakery in Juba Town, finishing up final touches and plan to open this year.
The Wooden Oven in their Bakery
Kanybek’s Bakery selling point
The group attracted an International organization, this is to show that they have been on their toes and are achieving their goals. Kanybek being known for always putting effort and hard work in whatever they do, this is just to show that they are taking it to another level to want to be the major bread producing company in South Sudan. An International Organization called the IFDC (International Fertilizer Development Center) sought out Kanybek- impressed with their work to learn more about them and discuss potentially working with them in the future. They discussed potentially mixing wheat and maize however with the local method of baking the bread will be hardened and modern bakeries’ use chemical to make the bread softer using these techniques so as the group ventures into modernizing their bakeries they may potentially use this method, but a lot of consumption is not good for the body so they are also in the process of researching healthy alternatives to incorporate in their baking.
Kanybek group is also expanding their farms to a new location to reach more farmers in Central Equatoria that are good areas for maize production.
Transforming Agriculture through Cooperative Institutional Development and Capacity Building
Through funding from the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), Foundation for Youth Initiative (FYI) supports farming cooperative groups in South Sudan by way of capacity building and cooperative institutional development. Kuru-Ko Wate Women’s Self Help is one of the cooperative groups that FYI has worked with and helped transform through the Fresh Vegetables and Spice Processing Capacity Building Project.
Senior Staff Members of the Co-op
Kuru Ko Wate’s Foo Processing Center where they process their organic Spices and Vegetables
Before the start of the project, Kuru Ko Wate was having difficulty in understanding the seasons and weather and particular crops that should be planted at each season. The climate led to poor/low yields for this co-op.
Vegetables and fruits are important components of South Sudanese dishes. Vegetables and fruits are grown under nearly all farming systems. The potential for growing Amaranthus, Sukuma wiki (Kale), Onions, Okra (Lady Fingers), Tomatoes, Eggplants, Potatoes, Cabbages, Bananas, Mangoes, Papayas, Oranges, Lemons and Pineapples is very high. Their short maturity, quick ground cover, relatively high productivity, and adaptation to a more marginal soil condition allow farmers significant flexibility on how they incorporate the crop into their farming system. Currently, most of the vegetables and food commodities sold in South Sudanese markets are imported from Uganda which makes the products more expensive to the poor public despite the country having the potential to produce its own food and possibly export to neighbouring countries. KKSH took the initiative to breach this high-demand market plus adding value to their products by processing spices with them.
KKSH has improved its management capabilities and transformed the group through capacity building and engagement of embedded experts who taught KKSH production, processing, marketing, and financial management. Vegetable yields increased from less than 1 ton per hectare to about 3t/ha and members’ standard of living also drastically improved. The group managed to acquire high-quality seeds that they provided their farmers with in order to increase the value of their agricultural yield and quality of their products- which meant more production of their spices which they also package and sell in multiple supermarkets across Juba; Jet supermarket, Phenicia Supermarket and Diesel Supermarket and in the future with more revenues and a production increase, they seek to expand to supply more supermarkets within Juba attempting to establish dominance in the market. Also, the multiple trainings carried out amongst the members benefited them by building their capacity in business knowledge which they apply to their own individual businesses and personal lives (improved livelihoods).
Kuru Ko Wate’s Range of Processed Spices to supply supermarkets
On the 12th of January 2021, Foundation for Youth Initiative and Whittaker’s Peace and Development Initiative jointly organized our second boot camp exercise in Juba selected youth groups who were drawn from the WPDI’s pool of trained youth in Central Equatoria State in South Sudan. This 4 day Boot camp took place in DefyHate Now’s aesthetically pleasing office space and conference hall in Juba. The boot camp was structured to provide youth with hands-on business skills designed to help them build strong business models that play roles in developing business ventures and at the same provide them with the platform to pitch business proposals that can be screened and selected for funding upon approval by USADF.
The Business Canvas Boot camp was successfully conducted from January 12th -15th January 2021 in Juba, South Sudan. Initially, a list containing 25 delegates was proposed from the pool of WPDI’s trained youth but this was trimmed down to 12 delegates given the situation of COVID-19 protocols and their associated measures. The participants were transported to Juba from their respective counties and payams, accommodated in hotels in Juba for a period of four days of the exercise. The FYI team trained the participants in business tools that gave them skills to generate ideas, refined proposals, and competed for their venture before the 3-man panelists.
Out of the 12 participants that pitched their Business plans; and make a selection of 10. The Seed capital support the participants will receive in 2021 is an initial $10,000 each to 10 selected winners of the Business Plan Boot camp Competition. FYI’s team came up with a scorecard with a list of criteria for scoring the business plan pitches for the participants. This scorecard system ensured a very fluid and authentic and most importantly fair scoring of the presentations to ensure full transparency that is going solely based on the business idea fitting the right selection criteria which are; the viability and profitability of the business idea, whether the aim and goal of the business was achievable; the market analysis competency; value proposition, marketing, and sales strategy; socioeconomic impact on surrounding communities and the risk and loss assessment amongst other components. Ten out of the 12 applications, as indicated above, were selected based on the predetermined criteria, and they were recommended for further development and funding upon approval by the USADF.
Photo Gallery of Boot camp:
!st Place Winner of the Boot Camp Competition
FYI Staff that coordinated the boot camp
The Central Equatoria Payam Youth Participants during the bootcamp
The KEDA (Koyle East Development Association) Peanut Paste capacity-building project has proved an immense success for the group. During this current COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have been impacted adversely but due to planning ahead, the KEDA group managed to increase their production as they settled the issue of machinery through the USADF Grant and began stocking the raw materials of their groundnuts (peanuts) from November by paying attention to the global news after hearing the report of the first COVID-19 cases and decided to prepare themselves in case of a global and national crisis. They accomplished this by going to the production site once a week, the cleaning of the groundnuts; The four stages for their groundnut production being; shelling/roasting of the nuts where the groundnuts, the next stage is peeling the outer layers of the groundnuts. Then cleaning is done after they have been removed from the peeling machine then they kept in the grinding machine where the G-nuts are ground into small peanuts and then they are kept into the containers ready to be taken the producers who use their machinery to turn the raw nut into peanut butter, which was tested and was proven to be good quality ready for consumption. They process their peanut butter by putting it in the filling machine depending on the grams after they produced the peanut butter. They locally commercialized the peanut, as the locals supply them with the groundnuts. They get the supply to see if it is clean, take it to the roaster, peel it, clean it again and grind it and put them in commercial packaging containers called “SHUSU-SHUSU Peanut Butter “approved by the South Sudan Standard Bureau which they supply their peanut butter to the vendors and so far, they have six vendors (supermarkets where they supply the 500gs and 250gs) to multiple commercial vendors in Juba; Juba Mall, Jamal Shop, Nasama Supermarket, Elenna Supermarket, Sabriem Supermarket, Super Market Tonj, and Mine-Supermarket where their products are competing with imported goods to the market and NGO’s.
KEDA Member sifting through the raw peanut
Though the group is doing well, the issue with the pandemic is the prices of their peanut butter keep’s fluctuating as the economy is unstable, however, due to their planning ahead they are generating more sales because most peanut paste producers in Juba have been affected by the pandemic and therefore their production is low compared to KEDA, giving the group an advantage in the market.
The Final Peanut Butter product ready for commercial Supply
Their future plans for expansion is to educate the local people to produce more and provide more farmers with seeds to expand their raw material supplier base whilst benefiting multiple farmers who will give back in the form of the volume of grams. They are looking forward to producing groundnuts oil and sesame. The group of suppliers agreed to supply them with the groundnuts in three months as they are ready for supply.
The USADF C.A.R.E.S Emergency Fund given to the group during the current COVID-19 -19, 75% is going to be used to upscale their groundnuts production and improve some operation inputs. The group also plans on giving the local public COVID-19 awareness by running a campaign on safe practices and providing safety gear such as masks to the farmers and soaps. Their advice to farmers (G-nuts farmers) is locally producing the groundnuts for the country’s consumption to reduce the country’s dependency on importing products that can be locally produced.
“We would like to thank our granters USADF and FYI for supporting us during the Covid-19 and that it will come to an end for farmers to continue producing their products in South Sudan. We would on our side do our best in the production of the G-nuts into peanut butter and let us keep on doing what we can to help the country’s agricultural and private sector improve”– John Faustino, Business Manager
On the 20th of April 2020, the United States African Development Foundation launched the USADF C.A.R.E.S COVID -19 Program to build resilience among African enterprises and entrepreneurs while combating COVID-19 -19 IN Africa. The program has assisted their South Sudanese grantees with an emergency fund to assist them during these hard times.
100 Water Jerricans procured by ADA for distribution
ADA’s Protective Gear’s; masks, gloves, hand sanitizers for COVID-19
The Akari Development Association (ADA) have used their emergency fund to supply protective gears such as masks and hand sanitizers to many farm members and the surrounding community. They have also taken the initiative to set up multiple handwashing stations by procuring 100 jerricans and hand soaps to distribute among their members and the small businesses operating in the communities in the Kpuri and Kappo areas in Jubek County. Two Speeches by the ADA Board members were given during the coverage of this event by the SSBC (South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation)
There is currently no lockdown in South Sudan due to the economic situation as the vast population depending on daily incomes from small economic activities such as selling in markets, streets hawking, transportation and selling affordable food in small shops all across the city of Juba. ADA has taken it upon them to supply protection to the local community to carry out their daily activities safely as possible and minimizing the chance of contracting COVID-19 -19 to the best of their abilities.
“We would like to thank the USADF and FYI for supporting us and we shall continue to hope that COVID -19 shall come to an end in South Sudan so that our farmers will be free to cultivate and produce more for the sustainability of our people, until then we have to do what we can help” – Anna Nana Bona, Deputy Chairperson in the Board of Directors of Akari Development Association.
FYI CEO; Mr albino Gaw with Tom Coogan- Former Regional Director of the UASDF in Washington DC 2018
Mr Albino Gaw Dar, co-founded Foundation for Youth Initiative in 2011 with the purpose to create a platform that can enable young people to fully participate in the development processes of a new nation, South Sudan. Albino grew up In a village, schooled in refugee camps, studied sociology and worked for the public institutions. This exposure gives him a deep sense of curiosity and eagerness to understand the people and the world around him. This happened at first through local customs, values, and roles, later through traveling to different regions as a refugee. As of today, he is currently working as a social development specialist- advocating for building future business leader and successful bureaucrats in the country.
His inspiration to start his own NGO was born out of frustration over years, trailing back to 2005, when South Sudan became an autonomous region following the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Sudan People Liberation Movement/ Army (SPLM/A) and National Congress Party of the Sudan Government which resulted in the formation of the government of South Sudan.
Citizens from the region of South Sudan were recruited into the public sectors, particularly departments of ministries, commissions, and pastoralist bodies. In the processes of recruitment, only elders were appointed to become heads and senior civil servants of units either because of their ages, military background, or past work experience with public institutions in previous Sudan. The youth, particularly the educated youth were not recruited into a senior hierarchy or given meaningful assignments in various departments of public institutions. Despite their prowess, they were just relegated to junior positions such as clerks, junior insecure. These positions lack the meaningful scope of work that commensurate their educational qualifications. As a result, many educated young people were estranged and frustrated because their skills are being underutilized.
Albino personally worked for two public institutions of South Sudan; an assistant inspector for the Ministry of Cooperative and Rural Development in 2006; and then he joined the Public Grievances Chamber as its executive secretary- leaving both positions as his skills were not being utilized to the best of his expectations.
His concept of social development revolves around two models: private Sector Development and empowerment of youth-led and women-led enterprises: the overall purpose of his model is to create and promote self-sustaining grassroots-led small and medium enterprise that focuses on value creation, innovation, technology adaptation and learning processes designed to enable young people to contribute resolution of social problems affecting communities.
“My message to South Sudanese youth is that South Sudan is a home of diverse social groups who are intertwines by the River Nile and its tributaries and bounty natural resources including arable land, game reserves, mineral, solar energy and other strategic commodities. My understanding of availability of significantly contri8bute to the global enrichment.”- Albino Gaw Dar/ Chief Executive Officer of Foundation for Youth Initiative
