In a press release dated Monday 07 February 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a project to support the resilience of youth enterprises. This project mainly concerns the G5 Sahel countries.
Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad are the five G5 countries that will benefit from this project initiated by the AfDB. . Through this project, the African Development Bank intends to support small and medium-sized enterprises of young people
Planned to run from 2022 to 2024, the project is funded to the tune of four million US dollars. The funding is provided by the African Development Bank Group through the Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund (YEI MDTF). The implementation of this project will be carried out by the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the G5 Sahel. Thus for this implementation, the sectors affected by the coronavirus pandemic will be prioritised. These are tourism, hotels, restaurants, agri-food, transport and crafts.
To carry out this project, the AfDB has set itself the following objectives
Strengthen the capacity of 500 young business owners, i.e. 100 young people per country, with 30 to 50% female participation. This is the primary objective of the project to support the business resilience of young people aged 18 to 40. To achieve this, the bank plans to first improve access to public and alternative financing mechanisms. This will be followed by productivity and income growth in youth micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also aims to improve the institutional framework for supporting micro-enterprises and youth SMEs. In addition to these objectives, the AfDB aims to strengthen the resilience of these enterprises to climate change and to consolidate and create new jobs always for young people.
With this project, the G5 Sahel countries will have training modules for young entrepreneurs in key areas for the development and success of their businesses. Similarly, the lessons learned from this experience may be useful in building knowledge, especially in the private sector. It will also strengthen the African Development Bank’s knowledge in supporting youth entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, the implementation of this project complements two programmes financed by the Bank in the G5 Sahel countries in 2020. These include the multi-country support project for the G5 Sahel countries and the budget support programme for the G5 Sahel countries.
It should be noted that apart from this plan, there are other projects aimed at the economic growth of these countries under study. These include the establishment of dry ports at the four land borders of the G5 Sahel. These borders may be used to transport maritime cargo to inland destinations.
