Afrique Créative is an incubation programme designed to structure the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Africa. By supporting and strengthening the capacities of selected entrepreneurs, Afrique Créative aims to support sustainable growth that will bring change.
Afrique Créative is an incubation programme designed to structure the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Africa. By supporting and strengthening the capacities of selected entrepreneurs, Afrique Créative aims to support sustainable growth that will bring change.
The Afrique Créative entrepreneurs look back on the past year and the tools made available to them to support their businesses’ acceleration.
Due to the global health crisis, Afrique Créative adjusted its second bootcamp format: it was held on a digital platform from November 25 to 27, 2020. Although virtual, the exchanges were vivid and animated!
Wednesday November 25, 2020, Afrique Créative launches its second Bootcamp!
The ‘Afrique Créative’ creative companies are fundamental actors of their local ecosystems: instigators of inclusiveness, providers of economic stability, and catalysts of skills.
The Afrique Créative program entrepreneurs are dedicated to keep their respective countries’ cultural sector alive and dynamic, each of them with various and diverse tools.
“Afrique Créative” program’s entrepreneurs stand out for their willingness to show us that the goods and services production does not necessarily lead to our natural resources’ depletion.
These last three months have been a real challenge for our entrepreneurs in terms of business recovery. The cultural sector, in their respective countries, remains strongly shaked by the global health crisis. Through determination, the Afrique Créative’s entrepreneurs manage to create, disseminate their production and improve their impact on their ecosystem.
Afrique Créative consists of a set of activities to support the development of cultural and creative businesses in four African countries. This programme would not exist without the Agence Française de Développement’s funding and the active participation of a consortium formed by Africalia, Bayimba, Investisseurs et Partenaires and Zhu Culture.
In addition to creative mentoring and e-learning sessions, Afrique Créative offers the entrepreneurs a one-year "business" coaching to improve the management of their company and boost their turnover. 9 mentors have already provided more than 320 hours of coaching adapted to the realities of each mentee.
Within 6 months, 10 different speakers prepared 16 e-learning sessions and covered various topics related to entrepreneurship in the African cultural sector. These discussions enabled the entrepreneurs to improve their knowledge on management and marketing tools, but also to share their experiences and consider new options.
The coaching of entrepreneurs by experts of their sector is an important element of the Afrique Créative programme. These experts include nine creative mentors. Their objective is to assist the incubees on the artistic dimensions of their business. From the diversification of activities to the development of specific projects and brand positioning, the entrepreneurs’ evolution is clear and the mentors’ feedback is very positive.
Although they are operating in different sectors, Senegalese entrepreneurs supported by Afrique Créative have a common goal: to create employment for young people. Optimiste Produktions targets young lovers of urban culture in Rufisque; and Karoninka focuses on young women in Senegal’s remote areas to train them in audiovisual professions. To finance the training, these companies offer among other things production services and quality equipment rentals.
Despite the health crisis, Afrique Créative’s entrepreneurs are particularly inventive. Always positive, they have decided to turn difficulties into opportunities!
In Morocco, the entrepreneurs supported by Afrique Créative are involved in a large variety of sectors. However, they all have a common goal: to promote Moroccan and African culture. Langages du Sud achieves this by adapting its youth collection Lina and Adam into an animated series. Anya, for its part, is organizing Visa For Music new edition which will be linked to the election of Rabat as African Capital of Culture for 2020.
The Burkinabe entrepreneurs supported by Afrique Créative share several similarities: they work as a team, offer their clients unique and stylish products, participate in international events and are very motivated to boost their businesses’ growth. Discover their latest major achievements:
As we announced, 2020 will be a year full of creativity and entrepreneurship for the winners of Afrique Créative. No one can reflect better on this than the three incubated companies in Uganda. Numerous activities have already been carried out.
Following the Ouagadougou Bootcamp, Afrique Créative’s entrepreneurs revised their action plans in order to boost their companies’ growth and increase their social and economic impact. Discover their interesting ideas and talent in their project in this overview….
The Afrique Créative incubation journey began with a week of residential workshops in Ouagadougou from 21 to 25 October 2019, in La Ruche. This "bootcamp" brought together the nine selected creative entrepreneurs, as well as the members of the Afrique Créative consortium.
The call for applications aimed to identify cultural and creative entrepreneurs from Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal and Uganda who will take part in the Afrique Créative acceleration programme.
A look back at the Afrique Créative launch ceremony on June 8, 2019, which took place in Senegal in the presence of French and Senegalese officials.
This programme aims to promote the structuring of the cultural and creative ecosystem by boosting the development, the skill sets and the networking of companies active in this sector. Afrique Créative addresses operators combining both creativity and entrepreneurship in order to maximize their potential in terms of job creation and economic growth.
As an industrial sector still largely untapped in Africa, the cultural and creative field occurs as an important economic lever. Cultural and creative industries are vectors of social innovation and generate impact within their communities. Because its resources are non-polluting and inexhaustible, this sector represents an opportunity to build a fairer and more sustainable world!
Afrique Créative is financed by the French Development Agency (AFD)…
The AFD group finances, accompanies and accelerates transitions towards a fairer and more sustainable world. Climate, biodiversity, peace, education, culture, employment… : the teams are involved in over 4000 projects in Overseas France and 110 countries. By doing so, the AFD contributes to the commitment of France and the French people to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
…and implemented by an international consortium led by Africalia :
Africalia has been teaming up with artists and organisations working in a wide range of contemporary disciplines. Its mission is to support, collaborate with, structure and build networks of artists in order to put culture and creativity at the centre of economical innovation and social transformation in Africa. Besides, Africalia also mobilises the Belgian cultural sector so as to draw the attention of its audiences to African creativity.
Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) is an impact investing group focusing exclusively on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the African continent. I&P combines four pan-African funds representing 125 million euros, and has supported more than 90 SMEs based in 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Zhu Culture, a cultural engineering consultancy based in Senegal, has more than 20 years of experience and knowledge of the CCI sector. Zhu Culture supports several artists and is regularly approached by creative organisations in French- and English-speaking countries in Africa.
Bayimba Foundation is a cultural production organisation based in Uganda. Bayimba has a very extensive network in the local creative sector and has hosted creative initiatives (including festivals, workshops, individual artists and creative collectives) for over a decade.
Other partners: Jokkolabs, Design Hub Kampala, CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers).
This programme aims to promote the structuring of the cultural and creative ecosystem by boosting the development, the skill sets and the networking of companies active in this sector. Afrique Créative addresses operators combining both creativity and entrepreneurship in order to maximize their potential in terms of job creation and economic growth.
As an industrial sector still largely untapped in Africa, the cultural and creative field occurs as an important economic lever. Cultural and creative industries are vectors of social innovation and generate impact within their communities. Because its resources are non-polluting and inexhaustible, this sector represents an opportunity to build a fairer and more sustainable world!
Afrique Créative is financed by the French Development Agency (AFD)…
The AFD group finances, accompanies and accelerates transitions towards a fairer and more sustainable world. Climate, biodiversity, peace, education, culture, employment… : the teams are involved in over 4000 projects in Overseas France and 110 countries. By doing so, the AFD contributes to the commitment of France and the French people to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
…and implemented by an international consortium led by Africalia :
Africalia has been teaming up with artists and organisations working in a wide range of contemporary disciplines. Its mission is to support, collaborate with, structure and build networks of artists in order to put culture and creativity at the centre of economical innovation and social transformation in Africa. Besides, Africalia also mobilises the Belgian cultural sector so as to draw the attention of its audiences to African creativity.
Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) is an impact investing group focusing exclusively on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the African continent. I&P combines four pan-African funds representing 125 million euros, and has supported more than 90 SMEs based in 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Zhu Culture, a cultural engineering consultancy based in Senegal, has more than 20 years of experience and knowledge of the CCI sector. Zhu Culture supports several artists and is regularly approached by creative organisations in French- and English-speaking countries in Africa.
Bayimba Foundation is a cultural production organisation based in Uganda. Bayimba has a very extensive network in the local creative sector and has hosted creative initiatives (including festivals, workshops, individual artists and creative collectives) for over a decade.
Other partners: Jokkolabs, Design Hub Kampala, CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers).
Objective of the Afrique Créative programme: To support the development of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in order to maximise their social and economic impact.
Objective of the call: To identify eight CCI entrepreneurs to take part in the Afrique Créative programme
Programme length: 16 months (September 2019 to December 2020)
The following will be provided:
Target group: Cultural and creative organisations
Target countries: Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal and Uganda
Number of selected entrepreneurs: Two per country
Application deadline : August 15th 2019 (included – before 11.59 pm)
The candidate selection procedure was as follows:
To be eligible, candidates must:
be a cultural and/or creative organisation
be a private legal entity (company or non-profit organisation)
be based in one of the following four countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco or Uganda
have existed for at least two years
be legally registered with the competent national authorities and have legal status as well as a governance body (board of directors, management committee, etc.)
fill in the application form and provide all the requested documents in French or English (see below)
The following are not eligible:
Individual applications
Public or semi-public organisations (state-owned enterprises, government agencies, public-sector schools, etc.).
The selection criteria that was used to analyze and record applications was:
Objective of the Afrique Créative programme: To support the development of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in order to maximise their social and economic impact.
Objective of the call: To identify eight CCI entrepreneurs to take part in the Afrique Créative programme
Programme length: 16 months (September 2019 to December 2020)
The following will be provided:
Target group: Cultural and creative organisations
Target countries: Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal and Uganda
Number of selected entrepreneurs: Two per country
Application deadline : August 15th 2019 (included – before 11.59 pm)
The candidate selection procedure was as follows:
To be eligible, candidates must:
be a cultural and/or creative organisation
be a private legal entity (company or non-profit organisation)
be based in one of the following four countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco or Uganda
have existed for at least two years
be legally registered with the competent national authorities and have legal status as well as a governance body (board of directors, management committee, etc.)
fill in the application form and provide all the requested documents in French or English (see below)
The following are not eligible:
Individual applications
Public or semi-public organisations (state-owned enterprises, government agencies, public-sector schools, etc.).
The selection criteria that was used to analyze and record applications was:
Our vision focuses on individuals and their ability to harness their creativity to drive change. The CCIs can provide substantial economic leverage, and are an embryonic sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The sector mainly consists of small or medium-sized organisations with a significant effect on local development.
In addition, work in the cultural and creative sector can be particularly attractive to women and young people, whose employment is a priority in Africa. Sustainable, non-polluting and unlimited in its resources, the creative field is one of the preferred routes to achieve the economic and ecological diversification that modern and globalised economies so urgently need.
It is for these reasons that Afrique Créative takes the approach of supporting cultural and creative entrepreneurship by offering training, guidance and networking opportunities to CCI organisations.
Our mission is to identify cultural and creative entrepreneurs with high potential and to support, strengthen and network them in order to accelerate the development of their organizations.
The programme will include:
Afrique Créative offers an intensive incubation programme for cultural and creative entrepreneurs, who will be selected according to the call for applications.
This programme combines different methods and support tools:
Each entrepreneur selected as part of Creative Africa will benefit from a grant, ranging from 75,000 to 125,000 euros, depending on the needs of his/her organization.
The objectives of this scholarship are to :
The principles related to the use of this funding are:
The estimated timetable of Afrique Créative is as follows :
Our vision focuses on individuals and their ability to harness their creativity to drive change. The CCIs can provide substantial economic leverage, and are an embryonic sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The sector mainly consists of small or medium-sized organisations with a significant effect on local development.
In addition, work in the cultural and creative sector can be particularly attractive to women and young people, whose employment is a priority in Africa. Sustainable, non-polluting and unlimited in its resources, the creative field is one of the preferred routes to achieve the economic and ecological diversification that modern and globalised economies so urgently need.
It is for these reasons that Afrique Créative takes the approach of supporting cultural and creative entrepreneurship by offering training, guidance and networking opportunities to CCI organisations.
Our mission is to identify cultural and creative entrepreneurs with high potential and to support, strengthen and network them in order to accelerate the development of their organizations.
The programme will include:
Afrique Créative offers an intensive incubation programme for cultural and creative entrepreneurs, who will be selected according to the call for applications.
This programme combines different methods and support tools:
Each entrepreneur selected as part of Creative Africa will benefit from a grant, ranging from 75,000 to 125,000 euros, depending on the needs of his/her organization.
The objectives of this scholarship are to :
The principles related to the use of this funding are:
The estimated timetable of Afrique Créative is as follows :