In a village in northern Nigeria, there is a scene like this:
A young mother squatted on the soil, and the child in her arms had just changed from her "diaper". The so-called "diaper" is nothing more than a piece of old cloth that has been washed repeatedly, which has turned yellow and hard.
She washed the cloth and hung it on a broken bamboo pole, with helplessness in her eyes.
This is not an isolated case, but a daily life throughout Africa.
In 2024, the penetration rate of infant diapers in Africa was only 20%, and the penetration rate of female sanitary napkins was only 30%.
What does it mean? Among the ten women, seven people do not have the habit of using sanitary napkins in a fixed manner.
It's not that they don't want to use it, but that they can't afford it.
On that land, the prices of multinational giants such as Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark are astonishingly high. A pack of sanitary napkins is equivalent to the living expenses of an ordinary family for half a month.
Many African girls can only use cloth strips or even grass and trees to replace them.
In such a market, an uncle born in the 1970s from China completely rewritten the situation.
He built the factory in Africa, beat the price, and let diapers and sanitary napkins enter ordinary people's homes for the first time.
This person is Shen Yanchang.
Shen Yanchang's African fate starts with his father.
In the 1990s, his father was seen in the team of experts aiding Africa.
Ten years have given this family a natural sense of intimacy with the word "Africa".
In 1996, Shen Yanchang graduated from University and was assigned to work in a public institution in Heilongjiang.
At that time, stable jobs were the iron rice bowls that countless people dreamed of, but after working for a few months, he felt something was wrong: "This kind of life that looked at the end was not what I wanted."
The father advised him: "Go to the outside world and take a look."
So, in 1997, 25-year-old Shen Yanchang resigned from his public office and embarked on a flight to Nigeria.
That year, Nigeria's per capita GDP was only US$479, and more than half of the people were below the absolute poverty line.
Shen Yanchang stepped on the streets of Lagos for the first time, and the scene in front of him made him feel a huge shock.
Most of the houses on both sides of the street are made of mud, and cracks will appear when the rain rushes;
Many buildings were abandoned there halfway because they could not buy cement and steel, so they had to stop work and end.
What impressed him even more was the street stalls: a piece of wooden board and a sunshade cloth could build a store.
The stall owners guard from morning to night, but they can only wait for a few customers.
For the young Shen Yanchang, all this was both strange and tingling. For the first time, he truly felt that the African market was not without demand, but that no one was satisfied.
As a purchasing manager, his daily task is to find goods.
But the problem is that there is almost no industrial production locally, it all depends on imports. It's already luck to be able to buy the goods.
At that moment, Shen Yanchang realized for the first time that Africa did not have demand, but that no one met the demand.
Two years later, malaria made him unable to bear it and had to return to China. Just before leaving, a Nigerian friend asked him to help purchase a batch of goods from China, with a total amount of up to 200,000 US dollars.
For Shen Yanchang at that time, this was a huge challenge. He bit the bullet and took it over, and it was successfully completed.
This business made him realize: what Africa lacks is not a market, but a reliable supplier.
In 1999, he officially came to do business.
In 2000, he registered a company in Guangzhou, Okoye Economic and Trade, which is the predecessor of Morida.
In those years, Guangzhou Xiaobei Station was a gathering place for Africans, and taxi drivers nicknamed it: "Chocolate City".
Thousands of Africans are looking for a source of goods here.
Shen Yanchang mixed among them and started a typical "debtor" business: Building materials, electrical appliances, jeans, kerosene stoves... As long as Africa needs it, he can purchase goods from domestic manufacturers and sell them.
At that time, the profit was considerable due to information gaps.
But the good times didn't last long. As African businessmen became familiar with domestic channels, the information gap was quickly smoothed out, and the profits of the fallen master were getting thinner and thinner day by day.
Shen Yanchang knew that it must be changed.
In 2004, Shen Yanchang made a decision that his colleagues felt crazy: go directly to Africa to build a branch.
That year, he established the first overseas company of Senda in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
This step is of great significance. Morida is no longer a middleman in domestic exports, but a Chinese company that has truly taken root in Africa.
The African market is complex, and Indians almost monopolize first-level dealers. If Morida wants to cut in, he must find another way.
So, Shen Yanchang led his team to ride motorcycles and drive small trucks, and ran directly to villages and towns, developing the grassroots small dealers, and spreading the channels layer by layer.
On that land, he broke the original pattern.
Around 2013, China's labor costs rose, and coupled with the east wind of the "Belt and Road", Chinese companies accelerated their entry into Africa, and the competitive pressure increased sharply.
Morita chose the second upgrade to build a factory.
Combined with the "Clay Machine King" Koda Manufacturing, it has established ceramic factories in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and other places to build the "Twyford" brand.
In just a few years, Twyford has become the largest ceramic tile brand in Africa. If you enter any building materials market in Kenya, you can see the eye-catching "Twyford" sign.
Building not only reduces costs, but also solves local employment problems.
African government officials even come to the door: "Can we speed up the construction of the factory? We need a job."
Morita became a part of the social development in Africa for the first time.
If ceramics are the improvement of living, then sanitary napkins and diapers are the bottom line of life.
In 2009, Shen Yanchang incubated the Leshu brand within Senda.
At that time, there were almost only products from P&G and Kimberly in the African market. Ordinary families could not afford them. Women could only use cloth strips, and mothers used old cloth as diapers for their children.
Shen Yanchang gradually figured out one thing: building materials can make people live better, but what really concerns daily dignity is actually the most subtle daily necessities, baby diapers and feminine sanitary napkins.
The former determines the way mothers take care of their children, and the latter affects whether women can spend every month with decent decency.
In 2018, he made a key decision to build the factory directly in Africa.
This step is of great significance. In the past, products either shipped from China across the ocean, or relying on expensive import channels to increase prices layer by layer.
The average selling price of Softcare diapers is 8.87 cents per tablet, which is nearly 30% cheaper than Procter & Gamble and Kimberly.
This 30% difference is enough to determine whether a family can afford it.
By 2025, Leshu has built 8 factories and 51 production lines in Africa, becoming the sanitary products company with the most localized layout.
What are the results?
In 2024, Leshuwei's market share in the African diapers was 20.3% and the sanitary napkin market was 15.6%.
In other words:
For every 5 pieces of diapers, 1 piece comes from Le Comfort;
For every 7 sanitary napkins, 1 piece comes from Lei Comfort.
It has become the well-deserved "African Diaper King".
For countless African mothers, Softcare is not just a brand, but also a part of the daily life of the family.
Shen Yanchang is not a capital giant, but it has actually changed the lives of millions of families in Africa.
He allowed African mothers to use diapers for their children with peace of mind for the first time, and for women to use sanitary napkins for the first time.
This is a legend written by a Chinese uncle in Africa.
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