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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 first cohort of entrepreneurship support structures selectedNews | 17/06/2021Through I&P Acceleration in Sahel, financed by the European Union, I&P launched on Friday June 11 its first training program for entrepreneurship support structures (incubators, acceleration centers, start-up studios...) in the Sahel sub-region. The first cohort, which has just been... |
 I&P Acceleration in Sahel: Seed funding, an essential tool for the take-off and development of Sahelian SMEs (short video).News | 20/05/2021 Little desired by investors, the Sahel region is nevertheless a breeding ground for entrepreneurs and innovative projects, stimulating local growth and promoting job creation. Difficult access to funding and skills are the major issues preventing the development of these companies and... |
 Investisseurs & Partenaires, in partnership with the European Union, funds 28 start-ups in the Sahel regionNews | 05/01/2021 Officially launched in July 2020 with the support of the European Union, I&P Acceleration in Sahel program has funded in 6 months 28 growing small businesses in the Sahel sub-region. To boost the development of start-ups in the Sahel sub-region, the European Union is a... |
 I&P Acceleration in Sahel : Meet Siny Samba and Rémi Filasto, founders of the Senegalese company Le LionceauEntrepreneurs | 06/04/2021 Launched in July 2020, Le Lionceau was one of the first companies to benefit from I&P Acceleration in Sahel. As part of this ambitious program for young Sahelian companies, we met Siny Samba and Rémi Filasto, founders of this company that specializes in the production of baby food... |
 The European Union, in partnership with I&P, funds 28 start-ups in the Sahel regionNews | 30/03/2021 Officially launched in July 2020 (press release from 07/10/2020) with the support of the European Union, I&P Acceleration in Sahel program has funded in 6 months 28 growing small businesses in the Sahel sub-region. To boost the development of start-ups in the Sahel sub-region, the... |