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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
Morgane Awu
Myriam Koné
Ndimby RANDRIAMANANDRAY
Olivier Furdelle
Raphaël Dumont
Riana Andrianiriana
Soraya Baré
Timothée OUOBA
Latest News
 I&P Acceleration in Sahel: a review of the regional training workshop for the first cohort of entrepreneurship support structuresNews | 04/11/2021 As part of the I&P Acceleration in Sahel program, sponsored by the European Union, I&P gathered in Dakar (Senegal) the first cohort of entrepreneurship support structures (incubators, accelerators, start-up studios...) for a first regional training workshop. 20 participants (2... |
 The IPDEV 2 fund impact report for the year 2020 is online!News | 02/08/2021 Since 2002, I&P has developed the program IPDEV 2 in order to finance small businesses and build a network of local funds in sub-Saharan African countries. I&P Développement 2 (IPDEV 2) aims to create 10 local investment funds and to finance 500 SMEs in 10 countries in 10 years.... |
 I&P organizes a masterclass dedicated to funding solutions for companies in CameroonNews | 27/07/2021On July 21st, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), in partnership with the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce and the European Union, organized a masterclass dedicated to funding solutions for SMEs in Cameroon ( from microfinance to equity investment). During this event, several financial and legal... |
 Publication of July Newsletter, with an editorial signed by Koen Doens (European Commission)News | 15/07/2021 The latest edition of our newsletter is online! This newsletter notably includes: • An editorial signed by Koen Doens, Director-General DG INTPA, European Commission (see below) • A zoom on the latest investments of the fund IPAE 2 • An interview of Angéline Yougbaré Traoré,... |
 Interview with Angéline Yougbaré Traoré, founder of Maison Fenel in Burkina FasoNews | 08/07/2021Last June, I&P went to meet Angéline Yougbaré Traoré, a young entrepreneur who founded Maison Fenel, a company specialized in the production and marketing of fashion accessories made from local woven fabrics (Faso Dan Fani) and the first company run by a woman who benefited from I&P... |