During a recent visit to Tanzania, we visited some of our growth programmes for an extensive interview with their founders about the company, their lives and entrepreneurship in their country.

As a rapidly growing economy, the need for decent export services in Tanzania is skyrocketing. Chassol Group, located in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, provides expert fumigation for importing clients around the world. With a strong focus on hygiene, the company has not only made name for themselves in the export sector, but also in pest control and food safety. We spoke with cofounder and managing director Alfred Ogonda, a man who, after twenty years of experience in the sector, has grown to be passionate about pest control.  

Part 1: the work

Can you tell me a bit more about Chassol?

Alfred Ogonda: Chassol Group started in 2019, november 22. We offer four to five services, depending on how you categorise them. The first is pest control, both general pest control and fumigation. We do pest control in residentials, restaurants, hotels, offices, and more. Fumigation, where we use gases, is mostly used on containers for export or factory fumigation. Then we have hygiene services. We provide cleaning, but also offer hygiene products, such as soap dispensers, tissues dispensers, hand sanitizers, you name it. Everything that is needed for the hygiene of the washroom and for home: air fresheners, mosquito repellant, soap dispensers... Apart from cleaning supplies, we also supply pesticides for various clients, among which farmers. We even supply these pesticides to the government. We also supply industrial chemicals, such as bentonite, nickel and chromium, mostly to the government automotive factory. Finally, Chassol also provides support services for exporting. This is often combined with fumigation, but also contains the dressing of the container with paper lining, dry bags, and more. For some clients we also do weighing and scaling just to support them.

Apart from this, I personally work as a food safety auditor, providing food safety audits and training for staff. That is the advantage some of our clients have: when they rely on Chassol for our services and need a certification for food safety, the person providing this is also very much aware of what their company needs and looks like. We can always give them a package deal.

Why did you choose this sector? 

Alfred: When I was still in college, I supported myself by doing pest control. I started working in Kenya with Rentokil to earn money for my education. When I finished university, I got into the sector and worked again with Rentokil for 1,5 years, after that I was transferred to Tanzania. So I was employed from 2004 up to 2017, when I left employment and found my way to Chassol. Pest control is what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years.

Is it a passion for you?

Alfred: Yes, it has become a passion. Especially the food safety part of it. Not only tasting the food, but understanding what makes us move. When you see that bottle of soda, that plate of food in a restaurant, the process - we say from farm to fork - I go through that whole process. I feel like it has become part of me. It makes me happy when I see something and people appreciate it. The food is good, sure, but I want to see the process; where does it come from? Sometimes you tell people where it came from and they’ll say ‘Okay, if I knew that I would not have eaten it’.

Have there been any big milestones in the history of your company? what are you most proud of?

Alfred: We started as three people: me, my partner and his driver. Now we employ a hundred. During the period when I was employed, I created a compassion with the clients I was working with. They were happy to know that if they need something to be solved, I could give them the solution. That is what we transferred to Chassol: if there’s a problem, we don't just say ‘Oh, you have a rat problem, we have killed it, it is this one, we are gone’. No, we have to show you why the rat was there and what can be done to prevent it from being there. Finding people and getting them engaged and knowledgable, that‘s what has made Chassol grow. We adapt to different clients and their needs, and we train our staff to be able to do that as well. This flexibility makes me proud.

What are your ambitions and long term goals for the company?

Alfred: We want to increase our portfolio. You see, Tanzania is a big country and opportunities are still there. It’s a developing country. Among the top three pest control companies, I can say we are present. For me, I’d even say we are number one. So we want to maintain that position by adding more clients to our portfolio and opening more activity bases. For example, we have an office in Ngorongoro and a small office in Arusha, but we have not explored Zanzibar. It’s quickly becoming a tourist destination and we want to go there and explore. We know we can do it, it’s just a matter of planning. And as management, there are some things on the table. Our eyes are currently on Zambia, for which a lot of exported goods are coming through Tanzania. We are now in the final stages of opening a branch there. So we want to increase our portfolio, create more employment for Tanzanian people and leverage the opportunities which are there as a growing country.

Part 2: life and Exchange

Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?

Alfred: I’m a university graduate with a master of science in EHS, environmental health and safety, and food safety. Just last year, I also studied project planning and management. I’m in the process of certification and also I’m a certified food safety auditor. I have a family, I’m married and have 4 kids, the youngest being 1,5 and the eldest 15 years. 

What gives you the energy you need to get through the day? 

Alfred: Once you become an entrepreneur and you realize ‘I have 100 people depending on what Chassol is doing’, it means that if you don’t go out there, people will be affected. My schedule energises me as well: I wake up around 5, do some small exercise, a prayer, a bath, and I’m always ready by 5:45. Then I have tea with the kids and around 6 am, we all leave home. I often drive them to school. As a family man, I always tell them ‘I’m doing all this to make you happy, so that you can also make me happy later’. I make sure they don’t miss anything. It’s the same thing I expect with my staff. Whenever I talk to them, I tell them ‘This is like your shop. If you don’t open your shop, you won’t sell.’ That is why we don’t call people to come to work, you have to find it in yourself to go to work. Because it is your shop. You have to stand up. Then you have to go and do it. Because it involves you. If you don’t do it, nobody will do it. If I show up, and my staff shows up, we can move together.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Alfred: I like soccer, and because I travel a lot, I love spending time at home on sundays and grilling. I'll wake up, go for the early morning mass at 6. By 8:30 I’m home and will just be there preparing food and sharing stories with the family. I travel a lot, and sometimes I sleep at home only four nights in a month. The little time I get, I spend with the family, with the kids, just to get to know what is happening in school, what they're reading, ... and of course we top that off with a delicious grill. 

What has your experience with Exchange been like?

Alfred: They are so much on point and so focused on what they’re doing. Sometimes it’s us who are delaying, not responding on time. Because our Exchange coach wants to move very fast with us to reach our goals. It's a strong 3 year programme, and whenever they send you something, they give you options. They also adapt to what we are doing. After I told them that due to our operations, we are off network sometimes, they adapted to our schedule. For me this is very good. The quick and thorough responses, the support, ... from the start we have been very happy, and I believe this is going to become even better as we go on. 

Part 3: entrepreneurship and Tanzania

How do you look at entrepreneurship and business in Tanzania?

Alfred: There are huge opportunities here. This is a growing, developing country, so every new day there is an opportunity. I even tell my competitors this when we meet. In Dar es Salaam for example, we have only 300 registered companies doing pest control. But those like ours, with an actual office, there are not even five. The country is growing and this entails a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurs. You just need to strategize. I always tell people ‘Don’t do what you don’t know’. What has helped us grow is my knowledge of pest control. I've been doing it for so long. When I send the team out, if they get stuck out there, they'll call me and I'll know what to do in which scenario. If you do something which you understand, it’s different from somebody who just says ‘Oh I’ve seen someone do this, let me do this as well.’ You will not succeed. My advice: look at the sector, see what is happening, go get some knowledge about it, then come and practice. 

How do you see this situation evolving throughout the next years?

Alfred: We’ve had a lot of startups coming up, but if you ask me for addresses of all the pest control companies, you cannot get it. Even the government cannot get it, because there is no proper coordination. We are talking with some of the directors, asking them for a database. Whenever we’re applying for a permit, you can see that it’s different to apply for a permit to practice and to actually practice. Someone can just apply and wait for deals; it’s different from someone who’s practicing on a daily basis. If a database can be developed, not only for pest control, but for every sector, all the entrepreneurs, it will be easier and the country will be able to develop, to understand the requirements and direct resources to those requirements. For example, in the pest control industry, what you are taught in the university is totally different from what we are doing in the field and there is no place where you can learn how to fumigate a container. Where you can learn how to hold the pump and spray. Because of this, we are also thinking of creating a technical training facility. We already train our staff, so we have the content. Now we only need the approval of the government so we can be officially recognized as a trainer. 

What improvements in Tanzania do you look forward to in the next 5 years?

Alfred: I think we’re the only one in Africa registering reports online, issuing certificates online which the client can access anywhere. You used to give one client five or six documents, while right now, we don’t give any papers, so we’re saving the environment. When we started 5 years ago, we didn’t have all these online systems. That's why we're also pushing the government to register the operators and the entrepreneurs, and coordinate. Right now, there is no proper standard. For example, if you ask what the fumigation standard of a certain country is, the government wouldn't be able to tell us the procedure. We are coordinating with the government for this, but it takes time to implement. We now have an independent body dealing with pesticides and plant protection. You know when the process started? In 2011. It became a law in 2019, but was implementated only in 2023. We all hope that we will have a better system, especially for the pest control and food safety industry, which are dear to me. Right now, anybody can do pest control and you can’t trace whether he is trained or not. Those are some of the things which we are encouraging the government to adopt and make it easier, so that anyone calling themselves a pest control technician is recognized by the government. 

Concerning food safety, the companies are coming in and we are seeing changes. Before, we used to have only one company which is asking about food safety. Now we have six companies performing food safety audits annually. We expect to have more, because people are getting more knowledgeable on food safety. Pizza Hut and KFC have 20 outlets in Tanzania, Pepsico has 4 plants, ...the clients are multiplying. As a growing country, we expect more volume in fumigation as well, because Tanzania has heavily invested in agriculture. The current budget for agriculture has been almost doubled. We expect a lot from Tanzania and are sure we will be able to grow our business more and more.