Training and financing young entrepreneurs in Senegal

As part of its strategy, ADA seeks to provide young entrepreneurs with tailored financing, business and soft skills to increase their social, environmental and economic impact. This holistic approach was recently put into practice in a four-year project in northern and central Senegal in collaboration with LuxDev, the Luxembourgish development agency. 

Holistic entrepreneurial and financial support

The aim of the project was to improve the coordination between different entrepreneurial support structures and a financial institution to enable young people to launch their own businesses. The project covered the following activities:

• In partnership with the Jokkolabs incubator, training sessions in agro-ecological horticulture, sustainable food processing and entrepreneurship were developed for young people. They were also instructed in the correct use of financial products and services.
• In partnership with the microfinance institution U-IMCEC, savings and credit products tailored to the needs of young entrepreneurs in the start-up phase were developed. U-IMCEC was supplied with a dedicated credit line for the disbursement of the loans. 
• Young agro-entrepreneurs were given access to micro-insurance products to improve their resilience against livestock mortality and crop loss by U-IMCEC in partnership with the Compagnie Nationale d'Assurance Agricole au Sénégal (CNAAS).
• A post-financing support programme lasting between seven and nine months which includes business management and personal development courses as well as individual business management coaching was put in place with U-IMCEC. 
• The various project stakeholders coordinated their support for the young entrepreneurs and carefully selected the entrepreneurs eligible for financing to mitigate the risk of loan repayment defaults.

In total, the project helped 860 young people to launch a business, thereby employing 1169 people including the young entrepreneurs themselves.

Lessons learnt

The holistic support of young people proved helpful in keeping their business development and loan repayments on track. In particular, the post-funding support proved essential for strengthening the young people’s entrepreneurial, financial and soft skills. 

However, the project also revealed that not every student has the necessary motivation and aptitude to become an entrepreneur. The candidates must therefore be assessed carefully before enrolling them in the programme. 

It was also found that many graduates of the largely theoretical vocational training lacked the necessary practical experience and the maturity to manage a business. This could be remedied with additional practical experience of at least a year before considering self-employment.

ADA summarised the key project results, analysed its impact and distilled lessons learnt in a comprehensive report. These lessons can benefit other organisations wishing to put in place a long-term, holistic support mechanism for young entrepreneurs in developing countries.