Côte d'Ivoire: Orange Corner's changing the minds of the youth

Nieuwsbericht | 12-12-2023 | 09:00

What makes the Orange Corners program unique?

‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands is at the initiative of the Orange Corners program which exists in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It specifies that “Orange” is the symbolic color of the Netherlands, hence the name of the program. It provides young entrepreneurs with training, mentoring, networking, funding and facilities to start and grow their business.’

‘Côte d'Ivoire is one of the first countries in Africa where the Netherlands implemented this program, in 2019. It is implemented by ESP. It aims to support non-digital innovation in the structuring sectors of the national economy. It also tends to support entrepreneurs who innovate in order to contribute to a competitive economy. Côte d'Ivoire has talent across the country; we met a lot of them and we think that they need “intelligent capital”. It is the approach of ESP which wants to bring forth the right combination of technical assistance and financing. Beneficiaries receive both technical assistance and funding, and we tailor this smart capital to their needs to support their innovations.’

‘The second aspect that makes the program unique is that it is truly focused on female integration. We put particular emphasis on young female entrepreneurs by boosting their potential and trying to put their business on an equal footing with that of men. This has made it possible to bring out female "role models" in various sectors which, it is hoped, will encourage other young women to apply. The "role model" designates someone who will play the role of an inspirational model for other generations, for younger people in general.’

‘To sum up, this program helps to develop cultures of innovation among young people between the ages of 18 and 35, students in particular, in Côte d'Ivoire. To find them, we make calls for applications on Internet and a lot of digital communication. We also organize "Inspiration" and "dare to dream" tours in universities across the country to talk about the program and encourage applications with the key word: innovation. Five thousand students have already been affected.’

How many in agro-industrial activities and in which agricultural activities are they involved?

‘We only started measuring this year by conducting surveys after each “Inspiration” session. We realized that 60% of the students worked on agricultural subjects. It's a lot. We find roughly the same rate among the entrepreneurs we incubate, about 60 to 70% of the 160 entrepreneurs we have incubated so far.’

‘This stems, no doubt, from the large number of partnerships that we have concluded with schools that are in these agricultural sectors because agriculture is a pillar sector in Côte d'Ivoire.’

How and how have private companies been involved in supporting young Ivorian entrepreneurs in agro-industrial activities?

‘The private companies that are our partners play a determining role in the program because, on the one hand, they provide a financial contribution enabling us to finance the activities of the program such as training workshops, consultants, university tours, events related to women, etc.’

‘On the other hand, the companies do the capacity building themselves. For example, they do master class animations or mentoring with the incubates. They also help to access certain markets: they open their doors when they have commercial exhibitions, participate in B2B with entrepreneurs. They also participate in selection juries or investment juries because we give investment funds to the best of the cohorts.’

Among these companies, what share is related to agriculture?

‘We have opened the program to agriculture, transport and logistics, renewable energies, smart techniques. But it is clear that agriculture weighs heavily in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and we find ourselves redirecting the program towards agriculture because the demand is strong.’

What are the challenges facing young entrepreneurs in Côte d'Ivoire?

‘There are many of them... The first challenge, which we don't often talk about, is the mind-set. This is a very important challenge for young people because they often lack the right mind-set, that is to say, to take action, not to wait. To be an entrepreneur, this is decisive. This is why in the program, we have launched workshops to work on this state of mind, workshops on resilience, stress management, on “personal building”. So, you really have to work on the mindset of young people. This is the prerequisite.’

‘The other challenge is technical support. They need more skills and tools to pilot their business ideas. Leaving the traditional school system, they do not yet have the right tools to become entrepreneurs. It’s another way of working, another discipline.’

‘Another challenge is access to funding. I put it after the "mind-set" and the technical support because, in general, when they have the right state of mind, they manage to access certain financing. Access to finance is still a challenge for entrepreneurs, perhaps because they do not have the right information or they do not know where to find it.’

Are there additional challenges because it is in agriculture? Should we break a certain image in relation to agricultural activity?

‘Yes, totally. Agriculture does not have the best image among young people. They find it an outdated, painful job, because they saw their parents and grandparents practice ancestral agriculture, not modern at all. They have prejudices about the difficulty of the sector and the profession. It's a challenge.’

‘Therefore, we focus on showing them the opportunities through innovation in agriculture, new techniques, ways to practice agricultural transformation. We try to share experiences. The Netherlands are very good at innovation in agriculture, horticulture, etc. and so we have a lot of exchange with members of the Embassy, ​​the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who often come to Côte d'Ivoire to meet our entrepreneurs to discuss the opportunities related to agricultural innovation.’

What actions have been put in place to accompany and support women in entrepreneurship?

‘For 18 months, we have really focused on women. We realized that they are applying more and more to the program and obtaining the best results. Unwittingly, they are among the most successful entrepreneurs. So, we want to focus on them to encourage and support them because they have greater challenges than men, especially culturally. It is not easy to see women entrepreneurs leading men. They have problems with their position, do not feel legitimate. So we work a lot on their “mind-set”. We organize a lot of specific activities for them during events called “OC4HER” where we bring together women from the whole community, so those who are incubated at the moment but also old ones, and we organize activities to boost their confidence.’

‘When we recruit, we communicate with women with vocabulary and images to make them feel more involved. We work a lot on our content, which we are in the process of making “gender sensitive”. We also train our trainers in all things gender so that they can also adapt their own training content.’

‘Even among the 18-25 year old range, there is a lot of work to be done on the “mind-set” of young women. The youngest are the most likely not to have self-confidence because they come out of the family cocoon so they are still marked by education and culture, by the gaze of parents, of the community, which can be an obstacle to becoming entrepreneur.’

‘For the older ones, if it's not their parents, it's the spouses. At first, when it's just a small informal activity, they're not against it, but when it becomes a more successful business, when they start to hire, to be busier, to come home later, it becomes a concern for the spouse.’

‘Among the actions that we are trying to put in place, we are trying to involve the parents a little more, but also the spouses so that they take part in certain activities, to show them what we are doing and that they are more confidence because they too do not have much confidence in the system.’

This artlice is part of a series of articles written by CommodAfrica for the SARA 2023 also available in French.