Supporting the development of small businesses and start-ups in Sahel

Our tool : I&P Acceleration in Sahel Program

Sinergi is one of the implementing partners of the I&P Acceleration in Sahel program, an Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) initiative to accelerate the development of existing and often informal small companies and to increase the chances of success of early stage entrepreneurial projects.

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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 will give project holders and entrepreneurs the tools and skills they need to develop and scale up their businesses.

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.

I&P Acceleration in Sahel is deployed around three complementary components :

Seed funding

Addressing the financing needs of companies during their incubation or acceleration phase. The seed funding is between 2 million FCFA and 40 millon FCFA

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

Selection criteria

The I&P Acceleration in Sahel program targets start-ups and small companies meeting the following criteria:

Managed by men and women of African nationality or permanently settled in Africa, dedicated fulltime 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).

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