Welcome to the African Innovation Podcast, the African tech and innovation audio show brought to you by AfricArena. For those who don't know, AfricArena is a pan-African ecosystem accelerator whose mission is to help African startups access bigger markets and raise more capital. Each year during our tour, we scour the major capitals of the continent in search of the most game changing startups in each region which we then bring to our annual summit in Cape Town in Nov of that year. In each episode we chat to the the most interesting thought leaders, founders, investors and corporate change makers of our time, about their work, impact and ideas. We unpack their many insights around innovation, growth, challenges, mindset and investment because our mission is to accelerate the rate at which our ecosystems are growing throughout this amazing continent.
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Welcome to the African Innovation Podcast, the African tech and innovation audio show brought to you by AfricArena. For those who don't know, AfricArena is a pan-African ecosystem accelerator whose mission is to help African startups access bigger markets and raise more capital. Each year during our tour, we scour the major capitals of the continent in search of the most game changing startups in each region which we then bring to our annual summit in Cape Town in Nov of that year. In each episode we chat to the the most interesting thought leaders, founders, investors and corporate change makers of our time, about their work, impact and ideas. We unpack their many insights around innovation, growth, challenges, mindset and investment because our mission is to accelerate the rate at which our ecosystems are growing throughout this amazing continent.
Today, we're sitting with Papa Amadou who is the Minister, General Delegate for Entrepreneurship in Senegal, an initiative called the DER.
The DER is a fund of 30 billion FCFA ($50 million USD) launched by the President of Senegal to catalyze entrepreneurship all around [Senegal](https://www.ictworks.org/tag/Senegal/), targeting youth up to 40 years and women from 18 years old and up, with no age limit.
Announced in Sept 2017 and formally launched in April 2018, the fund offers four main types of [entrepreneur financing](https://www.ictworks.org/funding-sources-african-entrepreneurs/). The most innovative are the latter two:
1. Small Financing: focusing on “smaller, simple economic projects”
2. Incubation funding: funding incubation, empowerment, or training programs for young entrepreneurs
3. Equity financing: a corporate finance fund that will offer capital in exchange for equity in a young company, that is validated by external DER partners
4. Low-interest loans: at 4-5% interest rate with a specific focus on certain clustered economic activities or certain value chains
AfricArena Podcast with Patrick Craig
Welcome to the African Innovation Podcast, the African tech and innovation audio show brought to you by AfricArena. For those who don't know, AfricArena is a pan-African ecosystem accelerator whose mission is to help African startups access bigger markets and raise more capital. Each year during our tour, we scour the major capitals of the continent in search of the most game changing startups in each region which we then bring to our annual summit in Cape Town in Nov of that year. In each episode we chat to the the most interesting thought leaders, founders, investors and corporate change makers of our time, about their work, impact and ideas. We unpack their many insights around innovation, growth, challenges, mindset and investment because our mission is to accelerate the rate at which our ecosystems are growing throughout this amazing continent.
