Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic of France has announced efforts to support the revolution of entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa through a new initiative, Choose Africa.
Coordinated by the AFD Group and Proparco, France will devote 2.5 billion euros for financing African start-ups, VSEs and SMEs by 2022. AFD and Proparco, its subsidiary dedicated to the private sector will be mobilized to support nearly 10,000 companies at different stages of their development.
Startups, small and medium-sized enterprises play a key role in job creation, economic growth and innovation. In Africa, these companies will have a fundamental role to play in welcoming the 450 million young people who will join the labor market by 2050.
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In Africa, many entrepreneurs are hindered by a lack of inadequate funding. Today, only 20% of SMEs in Africa have access to bank loans and 87% of start-ups have no access to financing.
1 billion euros will be invested in equity in startups, small businesses and SMEs in Africa while EUR 1.5 billion will be used to facilitate access to credit for small and medium-sized enterprises via public or private local financial institutions (microfinance institutions, banks, leasing companies, etc.).
About 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises will benefit from Choose Africa , about 600 will benefit from equity investments. Through this initiative, France, via AFD and Proparco, reaffirms its commitment to African entrepreneurs towards continent’s economic development.
It will also offer technical support to financial institutions to train companies and entrepreneurs to improve the environmental, social or governance practices of SMEs. An accelerator and incubation local ecosystem will support actions to develop an enabling environment for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
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