The Azito Attiéké Cooperative, supported by the MIGA-backed 430MW Azito Thermal Power Plant, is helping over one hundred local women entrepreneurs produce, sell and export attiéké, a cassava-based dish from Côte d’Ivoire. The owner of the power plant, Azito Energie, and the operator, Azito Operations and Management, are providing the cooperative with training, facilities and equipment to process and package cassava pulp. With an output of two tons per day, the women in the cooperative earn enough to send their children to school and provide for their families.
The power plant itself employs a sizable number of women, and when asked why it decided to help women in the village, the Azito plant manager responded that his mother earned money in the same way—albeit without the advantage of training and machinery—to send him to college. Azito Village is more than an hour’s drive from Abidjan, and the power plant’s support is crucial not only for the women, but their families as well. On the strength of the Azito cooperative experience, Azito Energie and Azito Operations and Management are supporting the development of a similar cooperative in nearby Beago village.