“Agriculture is purely Feminine!”
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Mboyo Sow is 23-year-old young entrepreneur from Louga. Sow is currently working with ‘BAY-TECH Africa’, an application that helps farmers to better choose their crops depending on the type of soil, quality of the water, as well as other environmental factors and resources.
What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?
I have always wanted to work for myself! I prefer to take my own direction and to be a leader. My leadership spirit has always anticipated to help people find jobs and to make people easily fit into society.
What are some of the challenges that you have had to face as an entrepreneur?
We live in a society that thinks agriculture is for men and we have had to change this narrative. Agriculture is purely feminine. We need to speak about agriculture in an attractive fashion to allude to women that agriculture is loving and caring for the environment. It is a passion. This is the reason why BAY-TECH had to take a break to strategize on different means of communication. Often people never talk in detail about the products they use, and this motivates us to seek resources to develop the application while considering the needs of the farmers.
However, funding has been our greatest challenge. We need BAY-TECH to expand its outreach and help many more farmers because 75% of the Senegalese population is composed of farmers. Therefore, if BAY-TECH develops its communications applications, it will be a great asset for both farmers in Senegal and around the world.
What is your advice to other girls who aspire to become entrepreneurs?
Young girls should get going! It is not difficult, it is enough to believe in oneself, to know that success does not depend on being a man or a woman. You must be passionate about something first because without passion, you cannot develop anything. One cannot be in Agriculture or in the Fashion Industry without being in love with it first. We should stop being afraid to start. I always like to say, "Goor baxna, Djiguene Baxna!”
What is your greatest achievement as a young entrepreneurship?
The greatest achievement with the BAY-TECH Africa’ app, is that it is a prototype of agricultural innovation in Senegal. We receive a lot of requests from countries like Congo and Niger, people asking for the application be used back in their countries.
I take pride to the fact that as a woman, I can influence other women who are my age and who might have been afraid to want to invest in culture. Also, the fact of being able to represent Senegal through certain competitions, such as Morocco’s "le Up", Paris and other countries brings so much joy!
How do you as an entrepreneur have to improve people’s mindset?
The solutions we bring into our communities are with women. Women can break that ice! Women should believe in themselves and do what they do with passion, rigor and with a lot of determination. We must demonstrate great leadership skills by doing relevant things. UN Women has been supportive in bringing together like minds and created a safe space for young women to share their work and dreams. I’m looking forward to more engagements in future and begin collaborating as strategic partners to help BAY-TECH launch its application to the world!