Last month was held the official ceremony to launch the cashew campaign of the SITA group, of which Massogbè Touré Diabaté is the founder. During this day, the entrepreneur took the opportunity to celebrate the more than 500 women who work for the group. Massogbè Touré Diabaté is a key figure when it comes to the cashew (cashew) sector in Côte d'Ivoire. By promoting the cashew tree, the boss of SITA SA has become a captain of industry who is taking up some of the most current challenges facing African countries: industrialization and the economic emancipation of women. Born in 1964 in Odienné into a family of entrepreneurs, Massogbè Diabaté is the wife of former Ivorian transport minister Gaoussou Touré, with whom she has six children. Before embarking on active life, Massogbé Diabaté studied business in Guinea and then in Abidjan and had the opportunity to go on a mission to India. This trip allowed him to realize the economic opportunity that the cashew nut represented. Before creating SITA in 2002, she founded the Cooperative of Cashew Growers in Côte d'Ivoire (COPLACI), then launched a promotional campaign for the cultivation of cashew nuts by offering seeds in many villages. When it started, Côte d'Ivoire was not even counted among the cashew nut producers. Through hard work and ambition, with her company, the young woman managed to hoist Côte d'Ivoire as the world's leading producer and exporter of cashew nuts. In the beginning, the company was focused around the sole production of cashews. It then turned to the industrial transformation of the product in order to perpetuate the activity. SITA was the first to link cashew nut production and processing in West Africa. Massogbè Touré Diabaté has built a veritable empire around the cashew market, starting with just five hectares of land (currently 150,000 hectares). In 2013, with a view to offering financial services adapted to the realities of producers, farmers and traders, she founded CEDAICI (savings bank for agricultural and industrial development in Côte d'Ivoire). Thanks to her work, the entrepreneur has obtained numerous distinctions. Prize for best African woman entrepreneur in Brussels, best female industrial entrepreneur in Côte d'Ivoire, prize for the best breeder SARA 97 or the Knight of the French Order of Agricultural Merit in 2014, she was named this year , in the Forbes Africa list of the 50 most influential African women. For the future, Massogbè Touré Diabaté would like to create a "made in Africa" label, but above all to make women shine on the continent, by continuing its commitment to female entrepreneurship.