What is TechnoPlus Service?

TPS founder, Cheik Sao emigrated from West Africa to the United States. As he built his business in the US he discovered, through hiring immigrants to work for him, that many of them were able to make their living doing maintenance and construction jobs. These jobs proved to be the lifeline for many of these hard-working people who otherwise might not have been able to support themselves.

While living in the US for the next several years, Cheik never forgot his vision: to return to his roots and reinvest, and to participate in the development of Africa.  This was his main motivation for opening TechnoPlus Service in Africa. After many years of hard work, Mr. Sao was finally in a position to start his project in Africa.

TPS Founded

After Mr. Sao researched potential markets around Africa, he decided that the best sector to create a multitude of jobs were in the maintenance and construction service industries. These kind of jobs supported many immigrants in the US, and he felt this would also be the best way to provide much needed positions in Africa. These types of jobs did not require formal education or degrees, and therefore training would not be a challenging process.

Social Enterprise

He carefully planned the best way to proceed. While his focus was to help African communities in need, he knew that the only way to provide long term help was to set up a profitable business. He decided to establish the company as a social enterprise: Social enterprises are profit making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need.  They need to make a profit to compete in the market, to ensure their continued survival and be able to invest in their social aims

TPS was established in Nouakchott, Mauritania in 2006.  It provided permanent, well-paying jobs to local youths as well as intensive job and skills training.

Since its inception in 2006, TPS has grown and now employs 505 permanent employees and offers an even wider range of services and products.

Why Start in Mauritania?

Mr. Sao decided to start his company in Mauritania because:

He saw the growing crisis the youths of this country were facing. Mauritania is one of the main departure points where thousands of young Africans make the journey to Europe each year as illegal migrants – risking people smugglers, deserts, sea crossings and the possibility of being sent home, all for the dream of a better life.

The main aim of migrants is to reach European soil – be it mainland Europe or the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla or islands in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. About 30,000 Africans were caught trying to reach the Canary Islands alone last year. The immigrants make the treacherous journey, packed onto tiny open African fishing boats. Many pay people smugglers in Mauritania to take them the 900km (558 miles) between Africa and the Canaries – which can take more than 10 days. This can cost up to $2500.00 – an entire life savings for most. Thousands of people die making the crossing or are imprisoned upon arrival and eventually deported.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy, of the International Organization for Migration, said countries like Spain were attractive to immigrants because it was easy to get a job there without going through official channels. “The main pull factor again is the existence of jobs in the economies of the host countries. These jobs are, most of the time, in the informal sector, so we would suggest that if countries are serious about tackling irregular migration, one of the suggestions would be basically to tackle the issue of irregular employment in the country of origination.”

Mr. Sao had the same opinion and realized the best way to encourage the youths to stay in Africa was to provide employment opportunities. He knew that with the level of education they would have to have some kind of work that was not dependent on degrees or long term training. (See Our Page on Youths in Africa).