President Emmanuel Macron of France has announced that his country will be giving $76 million (€65 million) for digital project that will offer funding for African start-ups. Macron revealed this at the third edition of the VivaTech trade fair in Paris.
To carry on with this mandate, €30,000 to €50,000 would be provided from the French Development Agency (AFD) to African entrepreneurs.
President Macron has openly made entrepreneurship a core aspect of France’s domestic policy. After he became President in 2017, he quickly announced his plans to make France a start-up nation, meaning France will act and think like a start-up.
The scheme will be launched in the coming weeks so that African start-ups can apply.
Macron has made recent visits to Africa and has commended the impressive initiative coming from the continent.
“African startups have energy but the big providers of development aid and financiers have not adapted to that. We ourselves are too slow, too hesitant,” he said.
Fad or not, the African start-ups needs more of this input to bolster its fledging tech ecosystems; especially seeing that funding is a challenge for most African start-ups.
