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France has been repeating for several weeks its desire to “refound the software” of its relationship with Africa. This is what President Macron again highlighted during the large round table of the AFD (the French Development Agency) which was held in Paris ahead of the EU-AU summit on February 16. last. Among the priorities: strengthen support for African start-ups for entrepreneurs who encounter many difficulties.
Matina Razafimahefa is the co-founder of Sayna, a mobile video game for learning Tech jobs. In Madagascar, it connects learners to remunerative micro missions. The young woman highlights some of the difficulties encountered: “ The first difficulties, I think, are the issue of financial transactions. When I make a transfer from my business account in France to my account in Madagascar, it costs 50 euros. A single transfer costs 50 euros. Dealing with the funding issue is complicated and takes time. VS’It was when I returned to France that I found support and that I felt helped and guided in what I should do. »
Katya and Noëlla founded Fresh Afrika. They offer baskets composed thanks to the quality production of small local producers. ” We represent small structures. We don’t have the strengths of a Bolloré and therefore don’t have the same relationship with customs or with institutions and administrations. This is why we asked the question of having support each time, not financial but rather on the ground. What do we do when we have someone at customs who does not facilitate ? In fact, we have the entrepreneurial loneliness syndrome. »
Another difficulty regularly mentioned, that of finding oneself in the mass of program offers. ” Il y a Pass Africa, Choose Africa ou Digital Africa, enumerates Papa Amadou Sarr, Senegalese minister at the head of the general delegation for rapid entrepreneurship. There are also partnerships with AFD, BPI France, everything that is France’s export pool. This is something that we would like to see unified in a one-stop shop to facilitate access precisely to this financing and this support. ».
Slowness of which the partners are well aware. ” When we talk about administrative delays, we are not going to lie to each other, the public expenditure circuit and that is normal, it is standardized, it is controlled, inevitably it takes a little time, admits Stéphane Eloïse Gras, executive director of Digital Africa, partner of AFD. Nevertheless, we have managed to move the lines a little and we are very proud of that, particularly with the Bridge fund where we have, using online platforms, artificial intelligence methods to speed up the examination of files, to accelerate the examination of the eligibility of applicants for funding. This is the kind of thing we can do to speed up the process and bring together the offer around a single window. This is the raison d’être of Digital Africa for the African tech entrepreneur. »
A new seed fund of approximately 8 million euros to facilitate the debut of start-ups should also be launched soon.