MeetAfrica is a pilot project, carried out in 6 African countries, namely Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco and Senegal, which benefited from European funds and whose objective was to emerge the talents of innovative entrepreneurship in Africa by encouraging diaspora executives to return to their country to create their own project and thus create wealth and employment.
To present the project, a press conference was held this Thursday, September 13 at the Regency Hotel Gammarth.
The project has been funded by the European Union and the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) for € 1.7 million and co-financed by the French Ministry of Europe and Business. Foreign.
For 28 months, this pilot project has enabled young people from these 6 European-resident countries with a degree in French or German higher education to set up innovative companies in their country of origin, while benefiting from technical follow-up. and financial.
Out of a total of 279 candidates, 80 have been chosen, among them 14 Tunisians, one third of whom have already started a business.
The main objective of MeetAfrica is to offer a solid support to these project leaders trained in Europe who wish to create in their home countries a company allowing them to value the skills acquired during their studies.
In addition to a technical assistance grant of 15,000 euros, which was made available to entrepreneurs, each according to their needs and business plan, this support was translated into action by coaching actions and advice to consolidate the idea of the project, maturation to demonstrate its technical feasibility, incubation to ensure good economic integration in the country and finally facilitating access to financing. For some projects, prototype creation was fundamental. Others were more market research or exploration missions.
Projects that up to this time have allowed the creation of about forty permanent jobs in addition to seasonal jobs in agriculture. And we’re just talking about the companies that were created while others are in the creation stage.
40 of the 70 laureates of this program are gathered in Tunis from 12 to 14 September for a final event during which they will be able to network and especially participate in a series of tailor-made training sessions covering key topics related to the launch phase of their activity (access to financing industrialization, pitch, etc.)
Through their different projects, these young people create jobs and, more broadly, make a definite contribution to the development of their countries of origin.
MeetAfrica is preparing the second phase and convincing the funders to follow it again. Consideration is also being given to expanding the program to non-graduate project holders as well as higher education graduates residing in other European countries other than France and Germany as well as to more countries of origin. .
Business News Tunisia
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