I&P Conseil, a subsidiary of Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), an impact investment group dedicated to financing and supporting start-ups and SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa, has issued an open call for applications for its “Investment Readiness” training programme for private or public entrepreneurship support structures (incubators, accelerators, start-up studios).
The training assists these entities in developing their financial abilities in order to better prepare entrepreneurs for fundraising. As a result, it will address three major themes.
Finance and corporate governance are the first. It cover create themes on accounting, financial statements, and the formalisation of an African SME. The second theme is the development of the company development initiative. It will place a premium on the financial development of the business, strategy and the comprehension of the research and analysis of a project.
The third theme concerns the company’s financial requirements. It will teach participants about the various financing options available to businesses, the notion of an investor and their expectations, the requirements for putting together a finance file, and the important parts of negotiating with an investor.
Structures with a formal legal status of association or business recognised by the authorities of the country of intervention and capable of producing financial statements for the two years preceding the year of selection are targeted for training. They must also be able to devote personnel and infrastructure to the execution of programme operations.
Individual applicants, structures with fewer than two years of legally registered business, and those that do not already provide any internal or external financial support to their entrepreneurs are ineligible for training.
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Candidates must be based in one of the following 13 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal , Chad, and Togo.
The training will take place online and in face-to-face sessions over a period of nine months. Learners will also have access to individualized mentoring sessions allowing them to adapt the knowledge acquired in the field.
Incubators often lack resources and skills in terms of mastering the financial challenges of African SMEs. This does not favor the emergence of innovative and competitive structures on the continent.
The deadline for applications is Thursday, September 15.
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Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh