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Impact · West Africa and the Sahel

A livestock market that no longer depends on a place.

Garabaly gives the livestock trade what it was missing: verified sellers, payments protected in the app, and sales that leave a record. Here is what we are changing, for whom, and how we will prove it.

Our 9 indicators→Funders and investors
A market: a place where people know each other.The place changes: sellers and buyers lose sight of each other.Garabaly connects them again, wherever they are.Every protected payment leaves a record.
9

indicators published before any results

6

roles in the livestock trade served, from herder to transporter

3

countries where Garabaly is already used: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger

100%

self-funded to date

01The ground

When the market moves, a whole economy loses its bearings.

The livestock trade rests on a place and on familiar faces. In Bamako, that place has moved. In Burkina Faso and Niger, it is the roads and access to points of sale that have become harder. Everywhere, those who live from livestock pay the price. We are building for what is happening now, not for a theoretical problem.

September 2024

Bamako's livestock markets close

By decision of the district governor, for reasons of public order, seven markets in the capital close and replacement sites are announced outside the city.1 A decision whose reasons everyone understands: the market could no longer work as it did.

What we observe

Selling has moved away from the city

Today, the capital's livestock trade takes place on sites outside the city. Its effects on those who lived from it are very real.

What we are told

Sellers, buyers, trades: all affected

The sellers we talk to tell us they have lost the place where buyers knew them, and their income with it. Buyers no longer know where to find them. The butchers and transporters who worked around the markets have lost customers too. What they ask for: a market open at any hour, reachable from anywhere, including for the family buying from abroad.Words of Bamako sellers collected by Garabaly, reported without names.
The country's strength

Strong, steady demand

Demand for livestock is driven by consumption in the cities and by exports to coastal countries, and prices are holding above the seasonal average.13

What makes selling harder

In some areas, delays and costs

In some areas, bringing in animals and goods takes longer and costs more, and herders have less easy access to pasture and water points.13

How Garabaly can help

In support of the country's priorities

Burkina Faso's 2026–2030 National Development Plan names inadequate livestock markets and insecure pastoral land among the sector's constraints.16 Garabaly comes in support: a market that does not depend on a place, where the seller is visible at any hour and the buyer pays in a protected way.

The country's strength

Pastoral herding at the heart of the economy

In pastoral areas, households live from selling their animals, and demand from coastal countries keeps prices average to above average.14

What makes selling harder

In some areas, a point of sale that is harder to reach

In some areas, reaching a point of sale is harder, and herders sell more animals for a falling income.14

How Garabaly can help

In support of resilience

The Programme de résilience pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (Resilience Programme for Safeguarding the Homeland) puts resilience at the centre.17 Garabaly comes in support: a verified listing reaches buyers beyond the herder's area, in other cities and in the diaspora.

MARKET GARABALY

2 in 3

recorded livestock movements in West Africa cross an international border.3 Buyers are often far away: what Bamako is living through, the whole region lives through.

≈ $1B

of live cattle exports from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso each year (estimate), unrecorded trade included, against about $80M in official statistics.4

The herder sells for less. The family pays more for meat.

The demand is there, in the cities as in the coastal countries. But where the security context disrupts roads and markets, both ends of the chain lose out, and the gap between them widens.

1
In some areas, selling gets harder

In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where the security context disrupts markets, roads and the movement of livestock.111314

2
The herder sells for less

In some pastoral areas of Mali, herders have had to sell well below the five-year average price.11 In Niger's Tillabéri region, herders' purchasing power falls even as they sell more animals.14

3
The family pays more

In Mali, the price of meat is rising on monitored markets.12

G
Garabaly brings the two ends together

Selling no longer depends on a road or an open market, and prices become visible. We will measure whether the gap narrows.

USUAL PRICE What the family pays What the herder receives THE GAP GARABALY

Illustrative diagram, not to scale: this is not a price series. Findings drawn from the food-security analyses of the FEWS NET network (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) and of the Food Security Cluster in Mali (FAO, WFP).

02The people

Six trades, six difficulties. One marketplace.

Everyone in the chain takes a risk today. It is not a lack of skill: it is a market that gives them no visibility, no protection and no record.

The herderSeller

TodayHe drives his animals to market without knowing who will buy, or at what price. With no buyer, he sometimes sells at a discount or hands the animal to a middleman. And he goes home with cash in his pocket and no record of the sale.
With GarabalyHe lists his animals: an AI assistant recognises the animal in his photos and fills in a good part of the listing, and he describes the rest by voice, in his own language. Buyers reach him from the city and from abroad. Paid in the app, the money is protected, then paid out with no trip carrying cash. If he is not at ease with writing, a field agent helps him create his account and post his first listing, and a young person around him can then help him along.

The city buyerHouseholds, restaurant owners

TodayHe pays someone he knows in advance, and sometimes receives the wrong animal, the wrong weight, or nothing at all. The money is gone.
With GarabalyHe sees the animal, the seller and the price before committing. His payment stays protected until he confirms he has received the right animal.

The diasporaBuyer abroad

TodayHe sends money, and hope: several middlemen, no proof. Often he only learns afterwards how things went.
With GarabalyHe chooses the animal himself from abroad and pays by card. The money stays protected until delivery to the family is confirmed. Distance no longer decides trust.

The butcherIndependent provider

TodayBefore dawn, he must already know which animal he will work on. He advances money to his contacts and hopes the quality will follow; if not, the loss is his.
With GarabalyHe sees the animal, the seller and the price before buying. Booked as a provider in a sale, he is paid once the service is done.

The vetIndependent provider

TodayHer expertise travels by word of mouth: it is hard to be found, booked and paid by clients who do not know her yet.
With GarabalyA verified, bookable profile, and a protected payment paid out at the end of the service, including for checks ordered from abroad.

The transporterIndependent provider

TodayOne-off jobs, uncertain pay, no way to prove his reliability to a new client: he competes on price, not on his reputation.
With GarabalyBookable in the same sale as the animal, paid by the platform on delivery. Every successful job adds to his track record.
Around them: field agents and young people who support the sellers.The three levels of work ↓
03A sale, from start to finish

Two journeys move side by side: the animal, and the money.

The animal goes from the seller to the buyer. The money waits, protected, until the buyer confirms arrival. No one has to take the other's word for it. Here is a sale, screen by screen, in the app as it is today.

The animal For sale
The money —
1

The buyer chooses the animal

Photos, price, seller, place: everything is visible before committing. The seller prepared the listing with the AI assistant, alone or with a field agent's help, and described the animal by voice.

App screen: a sheep listing in Bamako, with its photo, its price in FCFA and the Buy button
2

They agree on the price

As at the market, people negotiate. The seller offers a new price; the buyer accepts or refuses.

App screen: the basket, where the seller offers a new price that the buyer can accept or refuse
3

He adds the services he needs

A vet check, a delivery: independent, verified providers, in the same protected sale. The seller always prepares first. Each provider booked is paid once the service is done.

App screen: organising the order, with the seller first, then a vet and a delivery driver
4

He pays, and the money is protected

Mobile money, card or Garabaly wallet: the funds stay protected until confirmation. Paying on delivery is still possible.

App screen: choosing how to pay (mobile money, card, wallet, cash) and the protected-payment notice
5

He confirms, and the seller is paid

Every step is tracked. When the right animal arrives, the buyer confirms with their code: the money is paid to the seller, and the sale leaves a record.

App screen: tracking the order step by step, up to confirming receipt with a code
App screen: a sheep listing in Bamako, with its photo, its price in FCFA and the Buy buttonApp screen: the basket, where the seller offers a new price that the buyer can accept or refuseApp screen: organising the order, with the seller first, then a vet and a delivery driverApp screen: choosing how to pay (mobile money, card, wallet, cash) and the protected-payment noticeApp screen: tracking the order step by step, up to confirming receipt with a code

Real app screens · demo account

04The change

Every difficulty has its answer. Every answer has its indicator.

Our theory of change, in plain words. Tap a difficulty: the path lights up all the way to what we will measure.

The difficulty
What Garabaly does today
Expected results
What we will measure

The first three columns read from left to right; the last one gets published.

05The impact

A profitable market, effects that last.

Garabaly's impact is not a programme on the side of the business: it comes from every sale. That is what makes it last.

Income and marketsJobsWomenClimate resilienceFair pricesVoice and AI

Income and market access

57%

of regional traders surveyed choose their partner country because they know traders or customers there (survey of 3,225 traders in eight coastal cities).5 Trade follows relationships: losing your place means losing your buyers.

What Garabaly does
  • A verified seller profile that follows him wherever he sells
  • Payments protected in the app
  • Buyers reached beyond the neighbourhood, as far as the diaspora
What we will measure
  • Protected sales and protected value
  • Returning sellers and buyers
  • First digital payment received
SDG 1SDG 8SDG 10

Youth and jobs

362M

young Africans will reach working age this decade, for 151M jobs expected.7

What Garabaly does
  • Income around every sale: young people who help sellers who are not at ease with writing, and independent, verified vets, butchers and transporters
  • Partner field agents, paid on the sales they support (programme in preparation)
  • At least 3 permanent posts per country, once profitable
The three levels ↓
What we will measure
  • People who earn income from Garabaly, by level and by country
  • Permanent posts created, by country
SDG 8SDG 1

Women

26%

This is the gap between women and men in mobile internet use in sub-Saharan Africa, the widest in the world. It is two to three times larger in rural areas.6

What Garabaly does
  • The animal is described by voice: less writing to sell
  • A protected payment, for the women who have the least margin if a sale goes wrong
What we will measure
  • The share of women among active sellers, published whatever the result
SDG 5SDG 10

Climate resilience

1.5×

In the Sahel, temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than in the rest of the world.8

What Garabaly does
  • Selling without depending on a physical market being open or reachable
  • Being paid without a long trip carrying cash
  • Selling at a chosen time, not on market day
What we will measure
  • Share of sales made between different localities
  • Listings posted from rural areas
SDG 13SDG 2

Fair prices and access to meat

55M

people facing crisis-level hunger in West and Central Africa during the 2026 lean season.9

What Garabaly does
  • Prices displayed and comparable from one listing to the next
  • A direct sale between seller and buyer
What we will measure
  • The price spread by species and by region, over time. When prices are visible, speculation has less room: that is what we will check.
SDG 2SDG 10

Inclusion through voice and AICross-cutting

25%

This is the share of sub-Saharan Africa's population that uses mobile internet, the lowest of any region.10

What Garabaly does
  • An AI assistant recognises the animal in the photos and pre-fills a large part of the listing
  • The seller describes the animal by voice, in his own language. A few fields, such as the price, still need a little reading.
  • Listings you can browse offline
What we will measure
  • The share of listings described by voice or prepared with the assistant
SDG 9SDG 10
Jobs and income

Work at three levels, in every country where Garabaly operates.

Every sale puts more people to work than the seller and the buyer. We count separately what Garabaly creates directly and what is created around the app.

Level 1 · Indirect income

Around every sale

TodayIndependent vets, butchers and transporters are booked and paid in the app.
  • Young people who help sellers who are not at ease with writing to post and follow their listings, and who earn income from it
  • Independent, verified vets, butchers and transporters, booked and paid in the same sale

These are independent activities: we count them as income, not as our jobs.

Level 2 · Direct jobs

Partner field agents

TodayField agents in Mali and Burkina Faso support sellers.
  • Recruited in their own country, they speak the sellers' languages
  • Paid on the sales they support

In preparation The partner programme is being designed.

Level 3 · Permanent posts

A team in every country

3+posts per country
  • A country manager and two support agents
  • Once Garabaly is profitable

Posts created, published country by country.

Pay amounts are not published. Our numerical targets will be published here, with their calculation method, as soon as they are set.

06The proof

Impact is measured.
Not promised.

We publish our indicators before we have the results. The starting point is measured from the first sales: once activity is under way, it is impossible to know afterwards what would have happened without us.

What it is
How
Starting point
Measured from the first completed sales
Publication

Data published in our first impact report. No projection will be shown here.

Data from the sales

Our figures come from the transactions themselves, not from self-reported surveys.

A starting point

Measured from the first sales, so before and after can be compared.

Published whatever they show

Good results and bad ones, on the same dates.

Protected data

Only aggregated figures are published; no personal data.

An independent evaluation

As soon as sales volume allows.

Impact reportsNo report published yet. The first will appear here, in French, English and Arabic.

With our first report, we will publish how these indicators map to the international IRIS+ and 2X Criteria frameworks.

07The roadmap

From a gradual launch to regional infrastructure.

Six steps, in order. Each says what happens, what we measure, and what a partner can speed up.

What happens

What we measure

What a partner speeds up

Where we are

Used todayNext countriesAfter that

What becomes possible next

These are not products yet. They are the possibilities opened by a market where every sale leaves a record.

PossibilityTraceability and proof of ownership

Verified sellers and a record of every sale can support animal traceability and proof of ownership, working with the livestock services.

PossibilityA price reference

Over time, displayed and agreed prices can serve as a reference for the livestock market, for herders and buyers alike.

PossibilityKnowing the herds traded

The species and breeds traded most, region by region, and, with vets and the livestock services, the most frequent health problems.

PossibilityA trading record that follows the seller

Completed sales and reviews received form a record that could, tomorrow, help a seller access financial services.

PossibilityAn early signal

Unusual sales or price changes, aggregated and anonymous, could feed food-security early-warning systems.

PossibilityMonitoring the sector

Aggregated, anonymous data can support the monitoring of the livestock sector by the institutions responsible for it.

See another possibility?Suggest it to us: from the Contact page, or from the suggestions page in the app.
Suggest an idea →
08The frameworks

Work that fits national, regional and global priorities.

Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger: we work within the framework each country has set itself. Tap a point: the passage from the text appears, with its source.

MaliSNEDD 2024-2033Burkina FasoPND 2026-2030 "Relance"NigerPRSP 2024-2026AESNiamey DeclarationCILSSPRADEPAfrican UnionKampala CAADP 2026-2035United NationsSDGs · 2026 international years
Choose a pointEach point leads to a passage we read in the text itself.
09Check us

Don't take our word for it.

Everything a funder or an investor checks first, in one place.

Trade registerRCCM ML-BKO-01-2026-A-01130Bamako Commercial CourtVerify →
International identifierD-U-N-S® 85-042-6661Dun & BradstreetVerify →
The appGoogle Play · App StoreInstall it and try itDownload →
Our commitmentsTerms and policiesEscrow, wallet, dataRead →

Each "Verify" link goes to the issuing body. Data room on request: [email protected]

Method and sources

The figures on this page come from public institutions, United Nations agencies, food-security analysis networks and published research. Each is cited with its source, scope and year. The difficulties described come from what we observe and what users tell us; sellers' words are reported without names. Garabaly's own results will be published here as soon as they are measured, never as projections.

  1. Decision No. 1311/GDB-CAB of the governor of the Bamako district, made public on 19 Sept. 2024. Maliweb, 25 Sept. 2024 maliweb.net ; replacement sites: Malikonews, 1 Oct. 2024 malikonews.com
  2. CILSS livestock movement database, 2013-2017, analysed in PLOS ONE (2020). journals.plos.org
  3. OECD / SWAC (2025), Intra-regional Food Trade in West Africa: New Evidence, New Perspectives, OECD Publishing, p. 25, DOI 10.1787/3f5fd54a-en. oecd.org
  4. OECD / SWAC, West African Papers No. 52, July 2026; 2024 survey of 3,225 traders in eight cities, pp. 22-25. oecd.org
  5. GSMA, Mobile Gender Gap Report 2026 (2025 data). gsma.com
  6. World Bank / AfDB. blogs.worldbank.org
  7. World Bank, Results that change lives in the Sahel. worldbank.org
  8. World Food Programme, West Africa. wfp.org
  9. GSMA, The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026. gsma.com
  10. FEWS NET, Mali: Food Security Outlook, October 2025. fews.net
  11. Food Security Cluster Mali (FAO, WFP), Échos des régions No. 22, May 2026; FEWS NET, October 2025. fscluster.org
  12. FEWS NET, Burkina Faso: Food Security Outlook, February-September 2026. fews.net
  13. FEWS NET, Niger: Food Security Outlook, February-September 2026. fews.net
  14. Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mali, Stratégie nationale pour l'émergence et le développement durable (SNEDD 2024-2033), December 2024. aics.gov.it
  15. Burkina Faso, Plan national de développement (PND) 2026-2030 « Relance », January 2026. burkina24.com
  16. Niger, Programme de résilience pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (PRSP) 2024-2026, Climate Change Laws of the World entry. climate-laws.org ; African Union, Kampala Declaration au.int ; Niamey Declaration sidwaya.info
Funders and investors

Let's build the proof
together.

We are looking for partners who want to fund a market that measures itself, and to follow its results with us, from the very first sale.

Write to [email protected] →
Download the impact notePDF · 8 pages · October 2026 edition · English

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