The MEET Africa 2 team organized a MEET Côte d'Ivoire Ecosystem event in Abidjan on March 31. This meeting brought together national institutions in charge of diaspora issues, entrepreneurship support structures and diaspora entrepreneurs on the double space. Many topics were discussed during this day:
🚀Therole of the MEET Africa 2 program in facilitating the ecosystem, providing technical guidance and funding for public policy support and EAS (via its active capacity building role).
🎯Thedesign of matrices of specific support offers to diaspora entrepreneurship and the needs expressed by diaspora entrepreneurs (such as the National Diaspora Fund with adapted financing instruments, the updated digital sectoral and demographic information platform, the labeling of SAEs).
⛓️Les missing links between the current support offer and the needs expressed by diaspora entrepreneurs.
🔎Apanel moderated by Jamal Wehaibi, entrepreneur of the diaspora, was organized around the theme: What categories of services to be structured by institutions and CASs for entrepreneurs of the Ivorian diaspora? Many panelists representing the different actors of the ecosystem were present:
📌Direction Générale de la Diaspora - Pr. Katieneffooua Adama Ouattara, DG DMCRD-MEMAEIAD
📌Société d'Etat Côte d'Ivoire PME - Bamba N'Gotiemon, Senior Expert in Private Sector Development
📌MEET Africa winner - Ismène Clejo, CEO, African Xplorer
📌CI 20: Joseph Biley, CEO, Jool International
📌Incub'Ivoir - Hermann C. Kouassi, CEO, Incub'Ivoir
This discussion allowed to address many topics and very rewarding exchanges: definition of a startup; what does it mean to be an entrepreneur of the diaspora, the political will in Côte d'Ivoire to bring back "its children to the country"; the decree of the African Solidarity Fund; the access to bank credit; the digitization of sectorial information; the coordination of public and private entities, the tax pressure, and many others.
🔎Discussionsaround the necessary involvement of banks
The difficulty of access to bank credit, particularly short-term, is a major element in Côte d'Ivoire.
Entrepreneurs from the diaspora who have no credit history in their country of origin and no longer have real access to credit in the country of residence due to the return to the country, this therefore raises the issue of trust and legibility of projects.
🔎Masterclass by Dream VC
Questions from diaspora entrepreneurs about fianncements are numerous and recurrent, so we addressed: the challenges and opportunities of investing in an African country when you are from the diaspora, but also diving into investment preparation and fundraising for startup founders. This master class with Dream VC allowed to enlighten the participants on the stakes and constraints of fundraising and to put the question of financing in its right place.
MEET Ecosystem Meeting MEET Africa 2 - Abidjan, Ivory Coast - March 31, 2023