“Naatal Sine-Saloum” project: 300 million FCFA to support businesses

The General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Young People (Der/Fj), in partnership with the Belgian Agency for International Cooperation (Enabel), launched the “Naatal Sine-Saloum” project yesterday, Friday April 10, in Dakar. Amounting more than 300 million FCFA, it aims to support 300 entrepreneurial initiatives.

As part of the “Naatal Sine-Saloum” project, the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (Der/Fj) signed a partnership agreement with the Belgian International Cooperation Agency (Enabel) yesterday, Friday April 10, in Dakar. Through this partnership, the two institutions intend to achieve the empowerment of young people and women entrepreneurs in Sine-Saloum, precisely in the regions of Kaolack, Kaffrine and Fatick. The objective is to contribute to socio-economic resilience by promoting “inclusive growth, sensitive to gender and youth employment”, with particular attention to young women. Ultimately, the ambition is to promote and strengthen the competitiveness of at least 300 companies, 50% of which are run by young people and women in the sectors of aquaculture, salt, local processing, market gardening and other innovative professions in the Sine-Saloum regions. The “Naatal Sine-Saloum” project, lasting 30 months, including 24 for implementation and 6 for monitoring, amounts to 327 million FCfa. In addition, 150 beneficiary companies will be supported in accessing financing with 600 jobs created in these beneficiary companies.

According to Aïda Mbodj, general delegate at Der/Fj, through this partnership, it is a question of supporting the emergence of a solid entrepreneurial fabric, creating value and decent jobs. According to her, the prospecting missions, carried out by her teams in the regions of Fatick, Kaolack and Kaffrine, made it possible to identify more than 350 companies with high potential and ready to be supported to scale up. These results, added Ms. Mbodj, demonstrate the entrepreneurial dynamism of the Sine-Saloum territories. For her, the departmental branches of the Der/Fj make it possible to be in direct contact with project leaders and local realities in order to provide adapted, differentiated and effective responses which can constitute a guarantee of success for the implementation of this program. Abou El Mahassine Fassi-Fihri, representing Enabel in Senegal, highlighted the central role of SMEs in the country’s economic growth. He estimated that this project comes at the right time to create new champions who can carry out local development. He indicated that this partnership with Der/Fj is one of Enabel’s most strategic in Senegal, because it allows the acceleration of “Vision Senegal 2050”.

Bada MBATHIE