A young entrepreneur living in Benin, Paul Kpadonou has always dreamed of becoming a successful businessman. Paul, 30, started his professional career selling shrouds and garden decorations on the side of the highway in the municipality of Abomey Calavi.

During a campaign to promote the "WC Mimin" brand in his neighbourhood, Paul was seduced by the new product presented: innovative toilets that eliminate bad smells and prevent the presence of insects. "I understood that this product would make many people happy, because the traditional toilets used by households are full of insects with nauseating odours," he said. Indeed, access to toilets remains a major problem in Benin. According to the 2018 National Health Survey , only 22% of the urban population uses basic sanitation facilities, while 26% of Beninese use shared toilets and 38% practice open defecation. "Wc Mimin" is a latrine brand created as part of the Sanitation Service Delivery (SSD) project activities. An urban sanitation service delivery project funded by USAID. This project aims to facilitate household access to sanitation products by training private sector micro-sanitation entrepreneurs to provide these services.

Enthused by the prospect of helping to improve public health in his community, Paul became interested in the SSD project to benefit from the production tools as well as the entrepreneurs who had been pre-selected. Unfortunately because it was installed a little too close to an affiliated contractor, the project team decided not to integrate it into the model in order not to create unfair competition. However, Paul was not discouraged. He turned to the entrepreneurs involved in the SSD project to learn more about their work so that he too could build latrines. A few weeks later, Paul quickly became an expert in the construction of Mimin toilet toilets.

Determined to succeed, this young businessman drew inspiration from one of the mould models borrowed from an entrepreneur to make his own. Now with its own production facilities, it has started the large-scale installation of latrines by personally advertising to households.

To attract more customers, young Paul built a model of a "Mimin" latrine in his home and offered its use for free. A process that has attracted many curious people. The message quickly spread to the community and made him the King of toilets in Abomey Calavy. Thus, after 18 months of activities with the SSD project, Paul built and installed 1380 WC Mimin toilets for a turnover of more than 60 million CFA francs and a profit margin of more than 11 million CFA francs.