• mLouma digitizes price discovery, market access, and services across Senegal’s agricultural value chain.

• Co-founder and CTO Birahim Babou targets information asymmetry between producers and markets.

• The platform integrates pricing data, weather services, e-learning, and online marketplaces to improve decision-making.

Birahim Babou is a Senegalese computer engineer and technology entrepreneur. He co-founded and serves as chief technology officer of mLouma, where he supports agricultural stakeholders in production, marketing, and purchasing.

Founded in 2012, mLouma operates as a digital platform designed for Senegalese and African agricultural realities. The company aims to become a reference in digital agriculture by connecting producers, buyers, suppliers, institutions, and young entrepreneurs through simple and accessible tools.

The platform delivers up-to-date information on prices, availability, and product locations. Users leverage this data to guide buying and selling decisions. An intuitive dashboard aggregates multiple services, including agricultural weather updates, access to training content, market monitoring, and online shop management.

In parallel, mLouma developed several complementary solutions. Louma Mbay operates as an online marketplace where agricultural actors list and sell products. Louma du savoir provides an e-learning platform dedicated to agricultural training. Météo Mbay delivers climate information tailored to producers.

Alongside mLouma, Birahim Babou co-founded in 2020 and leads digital learning at Solutions Numériques pour l’Afrique, a Morocco-based software firm that applies technology to education. He also serves as IT project manager at Écoles au Sénégal, an initiative that uses digital tools to reduce inequality in access to quality education.

Birahim Babou holds a master’s degree in software engineering and network administration obtained in 2018 from the École supérieure de technologie et de management du Sénégal. He also graduated from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, where he defended a PhD in mathematics and computer science in 2020.

He began his professional career in 2014 as a senior IT technician at the Université virtuelle du Sénégal. The institution promoted him in 2017 to head of the applications and digital services division within the IT and information systems directorate.

Between 2019 and 2020, he served as head of digital learning at Accent Education, the edtech subsidiary of Moroccan computer hardware brand Accent.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange J.A de Berry Quenum