From teacher to entrepreneur, the transition was not easy for Bassirou Gueye. After several years as a primary school teacher, the idea of setting up his own business came to him following a bad health experience with chalk dust. It was then that something clicked: he needed to create a different kind of chalkboard, not with chalk, but with markers or felt-tip pens.

And so the adventure began, with Bassirou making paintings from recycled plastics. Not satisfied with the result and not very proud of the quality, he pushed his thinking further. Today, using glass, wood and aluminum, he has succeeded, with the help of a friend, in creating a modern whiteboard that offers good value for money, and is cheaper than imported boards or those made from other materials.

Coming from a modest family, he was able to develop his entrepreneurial spirit with training at university and later at Synaspse Center. Bassirou now works on his own account, in collaboration with his friend. They are incubated at Synapse as part of Empacto 300.

Currently in the launch phase, the project involves the manufacture of whiteboards for use in schools. The project has been set up to help modernize the country’s education system and preserve school health.

L’Entreprise de Création d’Activités Nouvelles (ECRAN) is a youth business, with a strong focus on education, and is contributing in its own way to the modernization of education by marketing whiteboards made from glass, aluminum and other materials.

These glass boards, which can take all kinds of markers (permanent or non-permanent), are therefore much cheaper than imported boards or those made from Formica or Plexiglas.

As part of its contribution to education, ECRAN also manufactures maps of all countries and continents on plywood and solid geometric figures, to facilitate teaching and understanding of geometry.