Presentation on "Policy Responses to Rapidly Transforming Midstream Value Chain Segments in Africa:​ The Case of Millet Sector in Senegal" by Dr. Getaw Tadesse, Director of Bilateral Programs at AKADEMIYA2063

1. Policy Responses to Rapidly Transforming
Midstream Value Chain Segments in Africa:
The Case of Millet Sector in Senegal
Getaw Tadesse and Ousmane Badiane

2. Introduction
• Objective
• Assess the policy responses to Africa’s rapidly emerging traditional staples value
chains
• Specifically address
• How the middle actors of traditional staple value chains perform?
• How aligned are the policy responses with performances?
• Using the millet sector from Senegal
• Data collected from 87 wholesalers, 75 primary processors, 922 secondary
processors, 582 retailers

3. The importance of millet in Senegal’s cereal sector
Figure 7.1—The Importance of Millet in Senegalese Cereal
Value chains

4. Competitiveness of millet and non-millet industries
Figure 7.2.– Four-Firm Concentration Ratios in All Cereal and
Millet Industries

5. • Implications
• Declining profit that
may lead to collapse
• The need for strong
and targeted public
supports
• Innovation and
economies of scale
as key areas of policy
response to this
sector
Rapid firm-entry in millet sector
Figure 7.3—Growth in number of millet enterprises in
Senegal, cumulative percentages

6. Indicators
Wholesalers
(WS)
Primary
processors
(PP)
Secondary
processors
(SP)
Retailers
(RT)
Percentage female owners 0.0 4.0 97.9 9.3
Percentage young owners (<35 years old) 41.4 36.0 14.9 54.6
Percentage self-employed at start-up 43.7 60.0 80.5 85.2
Median investment at start-up (1,000 CFA) 1,500.0 1,075.0 24.0 435.0
Median capacity at start-up (kg per day) 800.0 200.0 7.0 40.0
Median firm capacity growth rate (%) 5.4 2.5 4.5 2.9
Median sales per capacity 1.16 0.27 9.73 4.74
Performance of the millet middle actors
• Secondary processers are
• more inclusive,
• smaller
• faster growing than others

7. • The three I’s of public interventions for industrial development
• Infrastructural
• Institutions
• Incentives
• We specifically assessed the access and effectiveness of
• Financial services
• Trainings; vocational, commercial, at startup and current stage
• Membership in a collective action
Policy interventions

8. Insufficient access to institutional supports
Wholesalers
Primary
processors
Secondary
processors Retailers All
Sample size 87 75 922 582 1,666
Sources of start-up
financing (%)
Own income 90.8 80.0 49.1 80.9 63.8
Gifts from family and
others
10.3 17.3 47.4 18.6 34.0
Commercial loan 11.5 9.3 8.2 4.8 7.3
Noncommercial loan 10.3 10.7 8.9 13.4 10.6
Public loan 0.0 4.0 1.7 0.0 1.9
Start-up training (%) 1.1 10.7 15.9 1.4 9.8
On-the-job training 0.0 1.3 6.3 0.3 3.7
Membership in 2015 27.3 7.4 13.2 9.0 12.3
Membership current 23.0 6.7 12.6 8.6 11.5

9. • Results of econometrics analysis indicate that
• Female owners have lower probability of receiving trainings than males
• Entrepreneurs younger than 30 years have lower probability of receiving
• Financial, training, and membership supports
• Large and medium enterprises receive support more than small enterprises
• Training and membership supports
Less inclusive and efficient targeting
Who has access to public supports?

10. • The impacts of the supports were measured on
• Secondary processers’ capacity level and growth rate
• Trainings appears to be more important than others
Suggesting a strong need for firm-level capacity building
• Vocational trainings are more effective than the other trainings
• Vocational trainings are more effective at startup than at current
A strong need for aligning policies with industrial growth stages
How effective are the policy interventions?

11. • Policy interventions need to reflect the transformation trajectory
• For emerging traditional staples, focus on competitiveness and innovation
• Enterprise-level capacities and vocational trainings are more effective
• Policy interventions need to target the inclusive and fast growing SMEs
• Significant effort is needed to minimize the gender bias in public support
Concluding remarks