Digital Africa Social & Inclusive Business Camp 2020 for Entrepreneurs

Since its first edition in 2017, the SIBC has supported nearly 150 entrepreneurs with a strong societal impact in Africa in their transition to scale-up, in the measurement of their social performance and in their preparation for fundraising.

The Social & Inclusive Business Camp – SIBC is a blended-learning support program which includes:

○ 4 months of remote coaching on a dedicated online platform offering training courses and interactive virtual classes hosted by international mentors
○ 1 tailored mentoring program for each entrepreneur
○ 1 week of intensive boot camp in Marseille in partnership with the EMERGING Valley Summit
○ Being part of an active and ambitious international community

Key learning units

○ Leadership: defining better your purpose and mission, structuring your governance, and organizing your teams for successful growth
○ Scale up: adapting your business model and building your scale up strategy to maximize your impact and create a worldwide network of partners and growth drivers
○ Investment Readiness: identifying your financing needs, understanding investor expectations, and preparing to raise funds
○ Impact: measuring your social impact, with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals

Challenging times: growing your business in times of crisis

This year, the Covid-19 crisis reminds us of the urgency for our societies to take responsibility for environmental and social inclusion issues. We must collectively rapidly develop capacities for resilience and societal innovation. To do so, we need more than ever these innovative entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo to invent sustainable models generating societal impacts in Africa.

The SIBC thus pursues this double mission: (i) supporting entrepreneurs generating social impacts in Africa in their growth and also (ii) drawing inspiration from their dynamism and their strong resilience capacities by offering them a high international visibility, and fostering the emergence of strong role models in terms of inclusive and agile entrepreneurship

Therefore, for its 2020 edition, the SIBC is once again committed to working alongside entrepreneurs in order to strengthen their growth and resilience capacities in the face of an unprecedented economic and health crisis. This 4th edition, still focusing on social innovations, will highlight the themes of environmental responsibility and technical innovations to serve the most vulnerable through e-health or edtech in particular.

Building the entrepreneurial community is a key issue in the emergence of a more resilient and collaborative world, and the SIBC Alumni community will be widely invited to join this edition. The SIBC wishes to strengthen its commitment to the change makers of the continent, equipping them to deal with the consequences of future crises.

The SIBC is committed first and foremost to supporting young entrepreneurs in this time of crisis by providing them with the necessary management and reflection tools. Each entrepreneur who validates their application will thus have access to a Covid-19 business survival toolkit developed with AMI, a partner of the SIBC. They will be able to interact during a collaborative webinar, to access management tools on the AMI platform for 2 months and thus join a community of highly skilled peers to support them during this uncertain period.

Eligibility criteria

○ Be a legally registered social enterprise with a minimum of 3 years of activity and a turnover
○ Provide evidence of a positive societal impact in Africa and an innovative approach
○ Provide evidence of a balanced business model or a medium-term profitability objective
○ Provide a strategy for scaling up, including a reflection on governance and leadership

You may also check:

The following will not be eligible:

○ Individual applications
○ Non-profit organisations without a business model or profitability objective
○ Public and para-public bodies

Benefits

The teaching fees are free.
The entire programme, including the digital component, is valued at an 10,000 euros.
Meal expenses are paid by the AFD during the programme.
All related expenses are the responsibility of the participant.
Grants will be awarded to participants who wish so, in order to cover the costs of getting to and staying at the boot camp in Marseille (plane and hotel).
These scholarships will be offered as a reimbursement of expenses on the basis of invoices (there will be no advance on expenses). They will be of a maximum amount set according to the participant’s country of origin.

Timeline

○ May 4 – July 15, 2020: submission of applications
○ July 31, 2020: processing of applications and selection of the 60 participants by our selection committee
○ September 2020: beginning of the e-learning training on our digital platform, beginning of the mentoring program and integration into the SIBC learning community
○ Early December 2020: one-week intensive boot camp in Marseille and participation to the EMERGING Valley Summit

Application process

Applications must be completed on the Digital Africa platform.

The application is composed of:

○ An application form to be completed (questions on the project leader, the company, its structure, its impact and its strategy for scaling up)
○ Proof of the legal registration of the company (registration document, articles of association, etc.)
○ Financial statements for the last 3 years
○ Detailed CV of the project leader