ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°153 - Mars/Avril 2014 - 16

FoCus

By Lucile PAISANT (12)

Totally involved
After two internships in big companies, and despite all the things she experienced, it was obvious for Lucie PAISANT that the traditional big company did not
suit her. She analyses the situation.

Having very little impact on the final
result has been frustrating. During
my job search, I realized that my experience in Cameroun with Solidarité
Technologique in 2010 was the most
impactful. This NGO aims at training
young people to computer skills. As
it had a cash issue, the idea was to
create a dismantling and recycling
plant of EEEW (Electric and Electronic
Equipment Waste): companies give
their obsolete computers, students
dismantle and repair them, and the
second-hand computers are sold.
Being on the ground in charge of this
business model was very exciting, and
despite the first tough weeks, I could
sum up this experience in 3 words:
Discovery, Challenge and Autonomy.
To enter a small company
And that's what I was looking for.
I then obviously needed to enter a
small company, but which one? I met people and
discovered many projects, but finally one really
motivated me: Afrimarket. I applied for a sales
position in Togo. Africa was calling me again. This
position finally did not open, but after having met
the cofounders and the concept, I really wanted
to get involved.
Afrimarket is a new cash transfer solution towards
Africa. The specificity compared to big remittances companies? At the end, the beneficiary has
no cash, only goods and services. African migrants, who regularly send money to their family
members, can now send money to local partners
(supermarkets, bookstores...) and decide how
the cash sent will finally be used. AND at a lower
price: Afrimarket only takes a transfer fee of 5%,
as the world average towards Africa is about
12%.

ESCP Europe Magazine N° 153 - Mars/Avril 2014

An innovative concept
Thanks to Afrimarket, a Senegalese living in
France can send money to his mother in Dakar in
the nearest supermarket. The mother will instantaneously be notified by a SMS and be able to go
to the supermarket to do the grocery shopping
she needs. She will pay with her mobile phone,
and here is the technical innovation: the mobile
payment based on crypted sound secures every
transaction. This innovative concept faces a duopoly (Money Gram and Western Union), everything has to be done.
Learning on the move
I arrived a few months after the set-up of the
concept, it just became operational. The co-founders integrated me spontaneously as I started
with an internship of three months. This has been
a good way to test if we all got along and worked well together. Doing a bit of everything is the
most important part of the day: everyone is involved in the customer service for instance, from the
CEO to the intern. But I mostly had two missions:
explore the feasibility of opening Afrimarket to
associations to transform their cash donations
into cash and services locally and structure the
ambassador program ; an ambassador represents Afrimarket and has to recruit new clients.
I'm still leading these missions today, but they
have evolved a lot. For instance, regarding the
high virality level, the ambassador program is just
getting structured into a network marketing, that
was not in our minds some months ago!
Yes, it can be tough because everything has to be
done by our few hands, but we all learn by doing
in this incredible experience and I don't wonder
why I wake up every morning. So, go but only
if you're convinced by the project and truly get
along with the team, because it's with them you'll
spend the most of your time!
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ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°153 - Mars/Avril 2014

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