JAM The Coconut Food Company
JAM The Coconut is an integrated coconut processing company based in Nigeria. Eighty per cent of its staff are women, often from low-income communities. JAM provides training and employment in their factories in Okun Ajah and Badagry.
In these communities, the men typically go out to look for work and many of the women are left behind. JAM trains these women and employs them.
JAM also started to engage smallholder farmers, mostly in Badagry. Thay sign contracts with them to cut out the middlemen. This way the farmers also avoid waiting too long before they sell, which is risky because coconuts can rot.
The staff earns anywhere between 100 and 300 dollars a month depending on their department. The women used to earn about 20 dollars a month in previous jobs. Others were not able to work at all, because there are few opportunities.
The company has two factories in Lagos, and offices in Lagos, Abuja, and Ibadan, and contracts with about 10 farming families. The greatest impact is the transformation one can see with the women and young men.