Whether holding high positions and honors or starting a career in agro-business, Neuly Olatutu Abiala is a Beninese with an inspiring background. Born in 1979 in the south of Benin, Cotonou, Neuly has made her way in the professional world with remarkable skill and confidence. In her early twenties, she obtained her A-levels A2 at Père Aupiais Catholic Secondary School in Cotonou in 1998 and decided to continue her studies at the University of Higher Commercial and Computer Studies in Casablanca the following year. From 2000 to 2004, she enrolled in a double degree in international mobility: Bachelor In Business Administration, Management option at the University of Moncton in Canada and at the Commercial high school in Amiens in France.
Aware that her continent needs her skills, her know-how, her leadership and especially in love with her country, she returned to Benin in 2008 to work successively as director of operations of the nasuba international call center, then director of operations of the vickinfel hotel and commercial director of azalaî hotel in Cotonou. She then committed herself to the development of her continent with a pan-Africanist ideology that awakens consciences and above all with the firm conviction that Africa has the resources and the necessary potential for its development. “The first thing Africa needs is quality human resources, because it is the human being who makes development. We have everything but we are not conscious enough, we are here and we sleep on gold,” she says with dismay.
” From that moment, she makes the fight against underdevelopment her own, but aware that only the collective fight is a promising one on such projects, she calls on all Africans. « I decided to succeed in my personal development so that my light reaches the maximum of people around me for us to take up this challenge together. These are our challenges and the more people we have, the more chances we have to succeed” she confides.
The holder of a bachelor’s degree in business administration also served as executive director of international panafrican NGO from 2011 to 2017. An organization which purpose was to train young people on the land. A first experience that did not really succeed in keeping the promise of flowers after six years of practice, due to lack of support. «With internationale panafrican, we have trained around 250 young people in biological agriculture. We took in young people who had dropped out of school, who were underprivileged, we kept them with us for a year, we fed them, we took care of them; they stayed with us and learned all the basics of agriculture and at the end, we gave them land to help them set up their businesses,” she says.
But in an environment where financial support is lacking and challenges are increasing, motivation alone is no longer enough. « We had to give up because it was our own money. We tried to get sponsors but no one answered our calls,” she says.
She also decided to be trained in consulting to better support Beninese and African companies in their growing challenges. International consultant at Manegere Afrique, she finally took her autonomy to be a freelance international training consultant from 2014 to this date. Since one cannot be a good consultant unless one is in touch with the realities and permanent challenges of globalization and technological evolution, she decided to create and manage her own company to better understand the challenges of the managers she assists. A farmer was then born in 2017 and continues to grow in order to be among the African and international references in agrobusiness.
Read also From business, Neuly Olatutu ABIALA returns to the farm with the promotion of products made in Benin
In search of new challenges, she has, with time, embarked on the promotion of female entrepreneurship by helping women with entrepreneurial projects to achieve their goals in the best possible conditions of food productions. Today, thanks to this initiative, several food products made in good hygienic conditions in Benin, are available on the food market and also in several African countries. Ilé obirin was then born, an association which vocation is the production, the promotion and the sale of Beninese typical food products. « By helping women to blossom, we save Africa because today we have lost our values. And everything starts with education when it comes to values, and who talks about education, talks about women,” she said.
Mindful of the well-being of her immediate and distant environment, she has launched an online training course for all Africans wishing to be trained in agricultural entrepreneurship.
Notwithstanding her education, Mrs. Neuly Abiala does not renounce her origins, she fights daily to perpetuate the culture of her continent. It is quite rare to see African women, with such an exceptional background and different positions, both held nationally and internationally, end up launching themselves in a sector like agrobusiness. “I went to school to see things differently. When our parents sent us to school abroad, it was precisely to come back and improve what is done at home,” she declares to justify her return to agricultural entrepreneurship.
She has been and is still solicited by several international companies for consulting, auditing and quality approach, training and coaching missions. Neuly Olatutu Abiala will have marked her entire generation by her intelligence, her devotion to African culture and the promotion of our values.