I&P Acceleration in Sahel
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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.
Overview
Deployed over 4 years, I&P Acceleration in Sahel targets small Sahelian companies. The program gives them access to funding and abilities detrimental to their development and encourages decent job creation in the Sahel.
The program targets 13 countries in the sub-region : Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, and Senegal, and seven bordering countries (Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, and Togo).
The program in details
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 in West Africa.
Seed Financing
Technical Assistance
Strengthen the capacities of financed companies and investment teams through training and expertise missions (business plan preparation, administrative and financial management, coaching...)
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.
During the second quarter of 2022, I&P carried out a mid-term evaluation of the program's various components to measure the impact of the program's activities in quantitative and qualitative terms, and to identify its strengths and weaknesses with a view to improving its implementation.
Program portfolio companies
The sponsor: the European Union
The program I&P Acceleration in the Sahel is funded by the European Union, and more specifically through the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF).
The EUTF was established in 2015 to develop a comprehensive approach to stability, security and resilience and to prevent irregular migration and forced displacement. EU institutions, EU Member States and other donors have so far allocated €4.6 billion to the Africa Emergency Trust Fund. With actions combining economic and social development cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response programmes, the EUSTF uses an integrated security-development approach, offering a comprehensive and integrated response to the needs of the people of the Sahel and Lake Chad countries.
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 I&P's 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, Comoé Capital in Côte d’Ivoire and Zira Capital in Mali.
The team

Aboubacar Sanou

Alida Ouedraogo
Christie Babei

Cynthia Adannou
David Munnich

Issaka Amadou Boukari

Jessica Miessi

Kate Allou

Koloina Andrianony
Koloina Andrianony

Koloina ANDRIANONY joins I&P in January 2021 as a Portfolio Manager. Based in Madagascar, she is in charge of portfolio monitoring for the IPAS and IPAT programs.
...
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

Myriam Koné

Ndimby RANDRIAMANANDRAY

Olivier Furdelle

Raphaël Dumont

Riana Andrianiriana

Soraya Baré

Timothée OUOBA
Latest News
![]() Sophie Ménager's interview in Jeune Afrique: "Creating innovative and competitive SMEs in Sahel"In The Press | 04/08/2022Sophie Ménager, director of I&P Acceleration in Sahel and coordinator of association I&P Entrepreneurs and Development (IPED), gave an interview to Jeune Afrique to explain the vocation and the first results of the program. Read the article Learn more about I&P Acceleration... |
![]() I&P reveals the annual ESG & impact report of IPDEV 2 fundNews | 03/08/2022Each year, Investisseurs & Partenaires monitors and publishes a report of the environmental, social and governance impact of its different lines of business. Launched in 2002, I&P Développement line (IPDEV 1, IPDEV 2) aims at create, develop and sponsor a dozen impact funds and support 500... |
![]() Réussir le démarrage de son entreprise : I&P et Sinergi Burkina organisent une rencontre régionale au Burkina FasoNews | 21/07/2022On Tuesday, July 5, I&P and Sinergi Burkina organized a new conference in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) entitled "Making a success of your business start-up". At this occasion, a first report of I&P Acceleration in Sahel program dedicated to start-ups and young companies in the start-up phase... |
![]() E'Sens: promoting local citrus production in Côte d'IvoireEntrepreneurs | 12/06/2022Located in the heart of the Sassandra region, West of Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire, Epices et Essences de Côte d'Ivoire (E'Sens) produces citrus-based essential oils (bigarade, bergamot). This young start-up with high impact potential is supported by the I&P Acceleration in the Sahel program ... |
![]() I&P Acceleration in Sahel: End of the first edition of the Investment Readiness trainingNews | 22/06/2022In June, I&P gathered in Abidjan the first cohort of entrepreneurship support organizations (ESO) for a second training workshop. This meeting also marked the end of Investment Readiness training, which is the third component of I&P Acceleration in Sahel, funded by the European Union.... |