It all began in 19th century England, on a table with a champagne cork as a ball and two cigar boxes as rackets. Nearly 150 years later, and even though the champagne cork has been replaced by a real ball, Ping Pong has never been played more than today with more than 260 million players worldwide.
And among these players, we find the founder of TAKO, Sarah Hanffou, an Olympic table tennis player for the Cameroon team!
It was after his participation in Francophonie games in 2005 It was in Niger that Sarah realised the gap between French and African table tennis players. Where in France we have new equipment and dedicated training rooms, there the national team was training on a table on the side of the road.
In reaction to this, Sarah decided to create the association Ping Sans Frontières (PSF), with the primary objective of collecting Ping Pong equipment for distribution in African countries in order to develop and encourage the practice of this sport throughout the continent.
The initiative will be more successful than expected, and in 2014 Ping Sans Frontières will extend its activities to the whole world.
Today, the association is present in nearly 16 different countries and carries out many missions that go beyond sport, such as education and training.
So, where does TAKO fit into all this? Well, TAKO is the logical extension of PSF!
Do you know how many companies specialising in table tennis will exist on the entire African continent in 2020? The answer is simple: absolutely none.
In 2021, TAKO became the first African company to offer the manufacture of ping pong tables, with the aim of enabling the development of this sport but also to support future generations.
TAKO's approach is committed and that is why we are a Solidarity Company with both social and environmental values.
A solidarity enterprise is above all men and women who work every day to make this adventure a concrete and lasting success in the world of table tennis.
And the least we can say is that TAKO is not lacking in resources!
While Sarah HANFFOU is obviously in charge of the management of the company on the French side, she can count on Ishmael AMRAH as head of TAKO in Ghana. A true Swiss Army knife (or Ghanaian in this case), Ishmael is in charge of managing the various orders and above all supervises the production of the first African tennis tables.
For the manufacture of these tables, TAKO can count on the talents of two craftsmen experts in ball rebound and smash, Isaac AMISSAH and Moses ADU ISAAC. Because yes, if you didn't know it yet, our tables are entirely handmade thanks to a unique know-how.
Back to France now to introduce the last two members of this great team! First of all, we find Marine DE MEIRA as communication manager, she is in charge of making TAKO known to as many of you as possible thanks to quality contents that you can already find on our website or on our social networks, Instagram or Linkedin!
To finish this team tour, we have Elliot OBIDOL, who will be in charge of TAKO's entire digital marketing strategy! His objective is clear: to make as many ping pong players as possible discover TAKO so that our tables are invited to your home!
While the Tokyo Olympic Games, in which Sarah HANFFOU took part by representing the colours of Cameroon, have just ended, the world is now looking towards the French capital with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in focus!
Paris 2024 will have several challenges, and among these, the desire to put sustainable development at the heart of the event is at the top of the list. It is with this in mind that a incubator developed in partnership with the AFD was created with the aim of supporting 26 athlete-entrepreneurs to develop projects with a strong social and environmental impact, both in France and in 10 African countries.
The main point is that Sarah HANFFOU and therefore TAKO have been selected to do the work of the project.
The commitments behind the creation of TAKO are in fact very similar to those desired by Paris 2024. First and foremost, TAKO is a social enterprise that was created to make sport and education accessible to all in Ghana. All profits generated by the sale of our tables are directly invested in a local NGO.
We also want to develop the local economy, with tables made by local carpenters with wood directly from Ghana, which allows us to drastically reduce our ecological footprint by proposing a short distribution circuit and thus avoid imports from other continents.
Now you know more about the history of TAKO and our ambitions! Keep in mind that we are only at the beginning of this beautiful adventure, but above all that each and every one of you can participate in the future development of our solidarity enterprise.
To find our Ping-Pong tables go here: https://takobypsf.com/en/our-tables/
To contact us, you can write directly to: customersupport@takobypsf.com
Our team is also available on WhatsApp to answer all your questions, send us your message to: +23 35 47 58 89 10
