Business

Sustainable Entrepreneurs in Ghana and Nigeria

BASF’s business solutions to achieve a better quality of life

September 07th, 2018
Ilaria Zornada, News from Berlin
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A company that operates all over the world can help in the process of finding solutions to today's global challenges. This is what BASF is doing with its social engagement: it combines impact-oriented social activities with long-term corporate success.

The Company supports the achievement of these goals with donations, with their own not-for-profit activities as well as with business-orientated projects, like Starting Ventures. They also support the BASF Foundation, a charitable organization, in its international projects with various UN and non-governmental organizations.

As a founding member of the UN Global Compact, the company concentrates its global social engagement on supporting the United Nations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Starting Venture is a long-term business success. The goal is to develop business solutions to facilitate people with low incomes to achieve a better lifestyle. BASF tries to integrate low-income people into their value chains as customers, distributors, and suppliers, in order to create a positive impact on their lives, to help them find an employment and to afford better food, housing, and hygiene, both for themselves and for the future generations.

As a globally operating chemical company, BASF is well positioned to fulfil this role. Their market access and the development of their portfolio towards downstream industries give them the chance to create a positive impact on the daily lives of millions of people throughout the world. By taking this chance, they also create opportunities to develop new business.

Starting Ventures includes people in the economy for mutual benefit, thereby creating long-term business value and positive social impact. Both of these goals will consequently reinforce each other and enable the company to grow.

One of Starting Venture’s projects is called Sustainable Entrepreneurs. The program started in 2017 in Ghana.

BASF is introducing an innovative technology for smallholder farm management. An important component of the project is to develop a spray service provider program (SSP) by working closely with CropLife, a plant science association, to train and certify SSPs. In this program, a farmer, a young graduate or an agro-dealer can receive special training to apply crop protection products and receive certification and they learn application methods whenever there is a risk of crop damage by pests.

In less than a year already, there have been visible results: smallholder training result in more sustainable crop management and higher yields. Given the success of the activities, at the beginning of 2018, it had been launched also in Nigeria.

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News from Berlin