Ibrahima Bamba Sagne, builder of talent and local sovereignty
In Thiès, Ibrahima Bamba Sagne transforms the potential of her youth into concrete opportunities. A passionate social entrepreneur and trainer, he supports thousands of young people and women to create, produce and succeed with local and organic products, proving that development begins with commitment and action on the ground.
In the working-class district of Cité Lamy, morning wakes up slowly. The alleys come alive, the children go to school, the sellers set up their stalls, and somewhere, in a small courtyard, an open notebook and a telephone in hand, Ibrahima Bamba Sagne begins his day. It is the journey of a man who has made supporting others his reason for being.
Social entrepreneur and Managing Director of Nutri Sen Senegal, Founding President of AND MAGAL SUNU REW and general coordinator of the FEDER – Horizon 2035, Ibrahima has built a journey where commitment rhymes with pragmatism. Since his childhood, he grew up in an environment where solidarity and mutual aid were not just words, but a necessity. Very early on, he observed the young people and women around him, full of energy and ideas, but often held back by a lack of support and technical skills.
“I understood that training and the development of local resources were powerful levers to combat unemployment and promote economic empowerment,” he confides. This conviction has guided his action for years.
Trained in project management and social economy, he combined academic learning and field experience to build his skills. His mentors were community leaders and social entrepreneurs who showed him that lasting change could emerge from local initiative. From this inspiration was born Nutri Sen Senegal, a structure which transforms local raw materials into organic products, from go-fio enriched with collagen to fenugreek, while respecting quality and hygiene standards.
Producing is not enough for Ibrahima. His ambition goes further: he wants to transmit. For years, he has been training young people, women, project leaders and local entrepreneurs through the FEDER – Horizon 2035 and the Tòk Tékki Jotna project, an initiative which invites young people to stay, dare to undertake and succeed in Senegal. More than 3,600 people have already benefited from its programs, and the objective is to train 10,000 by 2035.
“When you train a person, you impact their family, their community and sometimes an entire neighborhood,” he explains. There is a lot of feedback: former learners who create their own business, hire people and in turn become models for others. These silent successes, often invisible to the general public, are for him the greatest reward.
For Ibrahima, consuming local and organic is not only an economic gesture, it is a political and cultural act. “Supporting Senegalese products means supporting the national economy, preserving health and promoting our resources,” he says. But the path remains strewn with pitfalls: access to financing remains limited, equipment is expensive and competition from imports is strong. However, he draws his strength from these challenges, finding in innovation and pragmatic support the key to moving his projects forward.
His vision is clear. He wants to create a generation capable of producing, transforming and selling from Senegal, with young people and women at the center of this dynamic. Beyond the numbers, its ambition is cultural: to change the way we look at local entrepreneurship and show that development begins with individual commitment to serving the community.
To those who dream of leaving, Ibrahima offers an alternative: stay and build here. He says it simply: “Believe in your potential, promote our local resources, dare to undertake business here in Senegal. The future can be built here. »
For him, transformation begins with action. And in Thiès, in the streets of Cité Lamy, this conviction takes shape: one young entrepreneur, one local product, one success story at a time.
Papa Abdoulaye Sy
