The client
Baobab is a microfinance group that has been serving small entrepreneurs in Africa and China for over 17 years. With a workforce of 4,000 employees, Baobab has established itself as a key player in the sector by offering credit products, savings solutions, and payment services tailored to the needs of small businesses. Operating in 7 countries, Baobab now serves over one million clients.
The challenge
Despite having a training policy in place for several years, Baobab faced a major challenge with its training model. “For over 17 years, our approach had been traditional. Of course, the initial training was extensive, with several weeks of instruction and on-the-ground follow-up. But afterwards, we often ended up with only two or three isolated training days throughout the year, which weren’t really followed up and ultimately had very little impact,” says Anne Delvern, Training Director at Baobab.
Additionally, teams in rural or remote areas struggled to access regular training due to geographic constraints.
The solution
Three years ago, Baobab decided to give a new boost to its training model. « It became clear that we had to evolve our training approach to integrate it into the daily routines of our employees. We wanted to reach our staff wherever they were, at any time of the year, to train them on new products or provide them with updated information,” explains Anne Delvern.
Thanks to the training solutions provided by Beedeez, Baobab was able to offer its employees on-demand training—even in the most remote areas. The training content was broken down into shorter capsules, enabling employees to access them more regularly, even during brief moments. As Anne Delvern points out, “The ability to break down training allows them to access it much more frequently, ensuring a more hands-on learning experience and far more effective impact tracking.”
After a successful initial trial of the Beedeez Training platform, Baobab decided to expand its partnership with Beedeez, adopting the platform as the company’s new and sole white-label LMS. This allowed for the creation of personalized training paths tailored to the specific needs of their employees. The Baobab Academy was born.
The impact
Beedeez’s solution has had a truly transformative impact on Baobab. More than 3,800 employees—over 95% of Baobab's workforce—have already accessed the Beedeez platform and are actively engaged in their training. Since the launch of the Baobab Academy, over 400 training capsules have been created and used more than 60,000 times.
What's next
According to Anne Delvern, the partnership still holds strong potential:
“Given the excellent collaboration we have with Beedeez, we’d like to work with them on projects to evolve the concept even further. For example, making technical training easier to implement, or creating databases of trained personnel in order to maximize the impact of our programs.”
