We are delighted and grateful to be able to announce that we made a new investment in August 2026. This has enabled us to add a new company to our impressive portfolio. MIPS (Maintenance Industrielle et Prestation de Services) is the market leader in technical maintenance, installation and spare parts for the cashew processing industry in West Africa. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire. From there, MIPS supports processing companies in countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin and Ghana.
West Africa produces the majority of the world’s cashew nuts, but local processing is still at a relatively early stage of development. MIPS plays a key role in this industrialisation by making technical expertise, maintenance services, training and spare parts available locally. This makes processing companies less reliant on foreign experts and costly imports.
Behind MIPS is an entrepreneur Christian Ouédraogo. As a boy from a disadvantaged background in Burkina Faso, he was given the opportunity to undertake technical training thanks to Woord en Daad. It was there that he laid the foundations for his career in industrial maintenance and engineering. After years of experience in the cashew processing industry, he decided to set up his own business. Today, through MIPS, he is building a strong technical company that is contributing to the further industrialisation of the agri-food sector in West Africa. His story demonstrates how investing in education and talent development can lead to sustainable economic impact for entire regions.
The company has established itself as the leading specialist in the cashew sector and maintains relationships with the majority of cashew processors in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, MIPS is the exclusive distributor for production lines from the Vietnamese market leader CMV in West Africa. The company combines the supply of machinery and spare parts with maintenance contracts, technical support and training.
With the investment from the Fair Factory Fund, MIPS is building its own production facility for the local manufacture of commonly used spare parts. This will enable processors to be assisted more quickly, reduce costs and generate greater local added value. At the same time, this creates new jobs for technical staff and strengthens the region’s industrial knowledge base.
MIPS’s impact extends beyond its own organisation. By building up local production capacity and technical expertise, the company is helping to create a stronger and more resilient agri-industry in West Africa. In doing so, MIPS supports the further processing of agricultural products in the region and helps to retain value, jobs and knowledge locally.
Impact in figures:
- Permanent jobs: 43
- Factories: 28
- Indirect reach amongst farmers: 40,000
The factories served by MIPS collectively process tens of thousands of tonnes of cashew nuts per year. The three largest customers alone already have a combined processing capacity of approximately 45,000 tonnes per year.
In West Africa, the average cashew farmer often produces 1 to 2 tonnes of raw cashew nuts per year on the market. This means that these three factories alone require raw materials amounting to roughly 20,000 to 40,000 farmers.
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