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I&P Acceleration in Sahel is an innovative program aimed at small businesses and start-ups in the Sahel and surrounding countries. The objective is to give these companies access to the financing and skills needed to foster their development, thus promoting the creation of decent and sustainable jobs in the region.
I&P Acceleration in Sahel: an overview
Deployed over four years, this ambitious program will benefit some 300 companies operating in 13 countries in the Sahel region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Tchad, Togo and Senegal.
I&P Acceleration in Sahel gives project holders and entrepreneurs the tools and skills they need to develop and scale up their businesses.
A closer look at the program
I&P Acceleration in Sahel is deployed around three complementary components, aimed to accelerate the development of existing, but often informal, small businesses and to improve the success of new entrepreneurial projects:
Seed Financing
Technical Assistance
Strengthening the capacities of the companies and of the investment teams through or collective training and expert missions carried out by national and/or international experts
Supporting the ecosystem
Strengthening entrepreneurship business structures: these structures are essential to helping to combat the feeling of loneliness that young entrepreneurs may experience and to facilitate their preparation for fundraising and/or investment.
Target companies
The I&P Acceleration in Sahel program targets start-ups and small businesses meeting the following criteria:
⇒ Managed by men and women of African nationality or permanently settled in Africa, dedicated full-time to their business and wishing to collaborate with a group of investors.
⇒ Operating in the formal economy (legal structure recognized and registered in one of the 13 countries of intervention) or in the process of formalization.
⇒ Committed to maximizing their impacts (social and/or environmental) through their business activities and/or improving their practices.
⇒ Particular attention is paid to projects led by vulnerable populations (young people, women, populations in disaster-stricken and/or landlocked regions), and/or companies operating in the education and professional insertion sectors.
For more information on the I&P Acceleration in Sahel program, we invite you to download the brochure of the program.
To submit your application, you can visit the dedicated page on I&P's website or visit the website of I&P's African partner funds.
Program portfolio companies
The sponsor: the European Union
The European Union is financing the I&P Acceleration in Sahel program through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), a financial instrument aimed at delivering a coordinated and rapid response to emergency situations related to instability, irregular migration and forced displacement and at providing sustainable solutions to migration management
Click here to read more on the EUTF
Implementing partners
The program is coordinated by I&P Entrepreneurs et Développement, a non-profit organization launched and managed by I&P, which aims to encourage and support entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.
I&P Acceleration in Sahel is deployed locally by I&P teams specialized in financing, coaching, education and training as well as by 4 four I&P-sponsored management companies, partners, and capital investment funds dedicated to high-potential, local, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs): Sinergi in Niger, Sinergi Burkina in Burkina Faso, Teranga Capital in Senegal, and Comoé Capital in Côte d’Ivoire.
The team
Christian AMOUO
David Munnich
Djibo Ibrahima
Elena Haba
Fadyl Cissé
Fanja Raharinesy
Fatou Diop
Hugues Vincent-Genod
Hugues Vincent-Genod
Hugues joined I&P in 2011. He holds the position of Investment Director for the IPDEV2 program and I&P seed funding activities.
Issa Sidibé
Jessica Miessi
Mahamane Maharazou Sani Ango
Mahamane Maharazou Sani Ango
Maharazou joined the SINERGI NIGER team in 2020 as seed manager for the I&P Acceleration in the Sahel program in Niger.
...
Marianne Vidal-Marin
Morgane Awu
Néné Diallo
Olivier Furdelle
Sandrine Pfister
Sophie Ménager
Sophie Ménager
Sophie joined I&P in 2014 and is now head of I&P Entrepreneurs et Développement, the association that carries I&P's acceleration projects.
Timothée OUOBA
Vivian Tchatchueng
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