Afrique Créative is an acceleration programme financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and implemented by a consortium led by the Belgian non-profit organisation Africalia with I&P Conseil from the group Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P) (a pioneer group in impact investment in Africa), Zhu Culture (a cultural engineering consultancy based in Senegal), Bayimba Foundation (a cultural production structure based in Uganda) and Tshimologong (a technological innovation hub within Wits University in South Africa).
This programme aims to support African cultural and creative businesses in their development to maximise their impact locally, nationally, and internationally. Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are still an embryonic industrial sector in Africa and constitute a considerable economic lever.
Afrique Créative is part of an approach to support cultural and creative entrepreneurship by training, supporting, and networking creative businesses.It is an acceleration program aimed at companies in the African cultural and creative industries. The program offers access to funding in the form of a grant between 30.000 EURO and 60.000 EURO as well as business and creative support for the implementation of an acceleration project.
The objective is to strengthen the capacities of entrepreneurs, support them in their scaling up and prepare them for future fundraising.
- Target audience: Cultural and creative businesses.
- Target countries: South Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Morocco, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Tunisia.
- Number of entrepreneurs selected for the pre-incubation phase: at least two per country.
The 15 winning entrepreneurs will benefit:
- An initial collective online training seminar (bootcamp n°1) focusing on entrepreneurial structuring and business model consolidation;
- A collective face-to-face training seminar (bootcamp n°2) in one of the programme countries, focusing on scaling up and including in-depth sessions led by I&P Conseil on investment readiness and impact;
- Weekly business coaching sessions by local incubators to refine and implement the strategy developed in the acceleration project presented to the jury;
- At the end of the incubation phase, consolidation of learning is planned in the form of monitoring by the incubators;
- E-learning sessions organised by the consortium - the themes of these sessions will be adapted according to the levels and needs of the cohort and will also include sharing the experience of other creative entrepreneurs;
- Creative mentoring by renowned professionals in their field;
- Business monitoring by professionals. These monthly sessions will help entrepreneurs to achieve the objectives they have set themselves for their growth: reaching a certain level of sales, raising a certain amount of funds, managing a geographical expansion, etc.;
- Quarterly monitoring by the consortium to assess that the support provided is in line with the needs of the entrepreneur, and to provide advice and suggestions.
- An acceleration grant: 1. The grants will amount to 30 to 60 thousand euros per company. Within this amount, a fixed budget will be allocated to pay the local incubator for support. 2. The amount of the grant will finance 2/3 of the total budget of the business acceleration project; the entrepreneur will have to make a 1/3 own contribution during the programme. 3. Disbursements will be progressive by tranches, according to quarterly developments. 4. Each entrepreneur will have to demonstrate in its financial projections the expected leverage effect through the investments it plans to make.
Deadline: 15 November 2023
Apply here
