Interview with Saikat Chowdhury
CO-FOUNDER and MANAGING DIRECTOR, NIVÉSAL
Lives in: Singapore
Each month, 1000’s of transport containers arrive at African ports, crammed with items that Saikat Chowdhury believes ought to be made on the continent. Regardless of its huge pure sources, Africa contributes lower than 2% to world manufacturing output. Because the managing director of NivéSal, a Singapore-based engineering tasks firm, Chowdhury argues that this reliance on imports unnecessarily inflates costs for on a regular basis residents. He factors out that the world’s poorest continent pays a few of the highest costs for shopper items and constructing supplies.
In 2018, Chowdhury and his spouse Mani based NivéSal to take the complexity out of producing tasks for brand spanking new entrepreneurs in Africa. The agency offers a ‘manufacturing-in-a-box’ resolution, dealing with every thing from tools choice and set up to uncooked materials procurement and employees coaching. The corporate generates income by taking a margin on the entire mission prices.
Earlier than launching NivéSal, Chowdhury labored for a Singaporean buying and selling home, sourcing completed items in Asia for export to Africa. His intensive journey throughout this era gave him a ground-level understanding of the African market, permitting him to advise aspiring producers on what merchandise are more likely to succeed.
The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a boon for the enterprise. International provide chain disruptions and skyrocketing freight prices compelled a strategic rethink, prompting extra governments and entrepreneurs to have a look at native manufacturing as a substitute of importing.
Chowdhury provides that the normal buying and selling mannequin itself is beneath strain. As the knowledge gaps merchants as soon as relied on shut, many are being compelled to think about beginning their very own manufacturing companies.
But many African entrepreneurs stay daunted by the concept of producing. Chowdhury argues they’re held again by a false impression that the method is way extra advanced and costly than it must be.
Most aspiring shopper items producers in Africa don’t want intensive manufacturing strains. Since few native markets can soak up huge volumes, investing in such capability is pointless. Amenities ought to as a substitute be sized to suit the precise demand.
Nor do they want full automation. Pointing to the abundance of low-cost labour, Chowdhury says that handbook work can be utilized for sure steps. He illustrates this with cleaning soap manufacturing: whereas he would automate the method as much as the sealing of the bar to make sure high quality, the packing into cartons could be accomplished by hand.
“This technique reduces the price to a drastically completely different degree, and merchandise can nonetheless match the standard of any worldwide product promoting available in the market,” he provides.
NivéSal was concerned in a single such cleaning soap mission in Sudan. On the time, the federal government had launched import duties on totally packaged cleaning soap. A significant importer sought to keep away from the upper tax by asking his European provider to ship the cleaning soap and packing containers individually, aspiring to bundle the product regionally. The producer, nonetheless, refused, citing considerations over model integrity.
The importer then approached Chowdhury to ask how shortly a producing facility for comparable high quality soaps could possibly be established.
“I advised him possibly 5 to 6 months,” the NivéSal managing director says.
When requested about the price, Chowdhury estimated between $300,000 and $350,000. The importer paid the advance nearly instantly to kickstart the mission. NivéSal sourced tools from China, uncooked supplies from Indonesia and Malaysia, and packaging from Dubai.
“In six months, the cleaning soap was available in the market,” he recollects.
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Two years in the past, Chowdhury was approached by the proprietor of a transport firm in Ghana. The businessman had no prior industrial expertise however was desirous to diversify into manufacturing. He had a finances capped at $300,000.
Chowdhury suggested him to keep away from meals manufacturing. Not solely is it technically advanced on account of security laws, however success depends on branding experience that the shopper lacked. As an alternative, he directed him towards industrial merchandise, particularly PVC pipes.
To validate the concept, he recommended the shopper analysis native market demand. Two weeks later, the businessman returned, satisfied by the information.
They proceeded to arrange a manufacturing facility producing PVC and PPR pipes for electrical conduits, agriculture, sewage, and residential plumbing. NivéSal managed all the setup, from sourcing and putting in the tools to connecting the enterprise with uncooked materials suppliers in addition to coaching the native employees to function the unit. Inside six months, the plant was operational.
“He recovered his total funding in three months,” Chowdhury notes. “After which he mentioned, ‘What can I do subsequent?’”
For the second part, the finances had grown to $1 million. Chowdhury recommended stone plastic composite (SPC) flooring – a inflexible vinyl product made primarily from limestone and PVC. It was a pure match, provided that the corporate was already working with PVC.
The shopper was instructed to analysis the retail value of those tiles in Ghana. He reported again that imported SPC tiles had been promoting for roughly $15 per sq. metre. Chowdhury inspired him to proceed, saying that their native manufacturing price wouldn’t exceed $4 per sq. metre.
Manufacturing of the SPC tiles started in June 2025. Chowdhury believes that is only the start, anticipating the businessman to tackle even bigger manufacturing tasks within the years to come back.
NivéSal has additionally discovered success in Algeria, pushed by the nation’s push for renewable power. The federal government goals to generate 15 gigawatts by 2035, largely from photo voltaic, and mandates that roughly a 3rd of the mission parts be regionally sourced. This rule created a marketplace for regionally made metal constructions used to mount panels at photo voltaic farms.
NivéSal sells the tools to fabricate these constructions to purchasers in Algeria. The machines, which the corporate produces itself in Vietnam, had been initially designed for pre-engineered constructing parts however have been upgraded for photo voltaic functions.
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The first problem for NivéSal to additional develop its enterprise in Africa, Chowdhury says, is solely consciousness – ensuring potential producers know that its companies exist. For the manufacturing ventures themselves, he says profitability isn’t the difficulty. As a result of imported merchandise are offered at such excessive costs in Africa, native producers often have a wholesome margin to work with. The extra important problem, he says, is giant multinationals dominating the market, making it tough for a small, new participant to interrupt in.
The idea of ‘Made in Africa’ is near Chowdhury’s coronary heart. In his earlier profession, he was centered purely on promoting. Nonetheless, he realised that many international locations lag behind as a result of they spend all their cash on imports as a substitute of growing native industries, which in flip creates employment.
He views manufacturing as a necessary stepping stone for improvement. “In lots of African international locations, a variety of issues begin from a job,” he says.
If folks have an revenue, they ship their kids to high school somewhat than to work. Additionally they acquire higher entry to healthcare. “The second you’ve got some cash,” he provides, “a variety of social improvement takes place.”
