AECAC Incubator Project
BUSINESS INCUBATOR “ACTION FOR ECONOMY OF COMMUNION IN CENTRAL AFRICA”
Project summary
The purpose of the AECAC incubator is to help in the growth of a new generation of entrepreneurs in favour of an inclusive and sustainable economy. Its mission is to provide incubation services and collaboration space to startups and young project leaders with social and environmental impact. These services are offered with the style of reciprocity.
The action consists in supporting a project leader in the process of creating and developing a company until its maturity. To promote alongside local entrepreneurship promoters and in particular, actors/actresses of youth and/or women’s entrepreneurship, its training course which includes the three skill levels (Entrepreneurial Skills; Managerial Skills; Functional Skills; with seminars on the following points: (Values enhancement – Creativity – Budgeting – Business Model – Communication – Taxation).
As a general incubator, our intervention covers the agricultural sector, education/training, vocational training and technological innovations in order to guarantee citizens equal opportunity in terms of access to social services while promoting equal access to public service offers. It is in this sense that AECAC will position itself, in Cameroon economic leader in Central Africa, as an incubator for the establishment of innovative and partnership financing and management mechanisms for companies moving from the informal to the formal legal status. Project history
Association AECAC was created in 2016. It acquired the first partnerships with the International incubator based in Italy EoC IIN (Economy of Communion International Incubating Network) of which it is now part of the network since its creation; We have trained more than a hundred Internally Displaced Persons, mostly women and young girls, from the crises in the North-West and South-West that the country is experiencing; and since 2016 we have supported more than 50 young project leaders, including (jam and chocolate manufacturing company; beaded shoes and sandals manufacturing company; clothing style manufacturing company; soap manufacturing and distribution company in all forms; production of wine based on local products; Mentoring business; poultry farm; rabbit farming…); We took part in the first Cameroonian Congress of Business Incubators and had the approval of Generalist Business Incubator, from the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts; whose commission also validated our training curriculum and support system.
Background and rationale
The economic news of the Central African zone is marked by the economic revival of the various countries under the label of “emergence”; a revival necessary to overcome the problem of the current economic crisis characterized by a declining GNP, inflation, a growing youth unemployment rate and that of border and internal wars, the fruit of the inequitable distribution of the wealth of countries resulting in insufficient integration of unity among cultural and ethnic diversities.
This economic recovery is a real challenge and is intended to be sustainable, a sustainability that will be built, above all, based on a private sector made up of productive, competitive, inclusive and prosperous businesses. To date, State institutions and companies are therefore looking for models and tools of sustainable development that we have in the economy of communion and of which we believe that the establishment of a real physical business incubator (with the aim of support for young entrepreneurs) would be both a point of reference and an asset for offering these businesses and institutions as well as young future entrepreneurs the essential tools for building rich and successful businesses together, as well as a wealth equitable distribution model that will stabilize the unity of peoples and ethnic groups as well as the sustainable development of the region.
Objectives
Project Objectives
Helping the growth of a new generation of entrepreneurs in favour of an inclusive economy ; (putting people and integral ecological issues at the centre of their actions)
1
DETECTION AND CALL FOR PROJECTS WITH SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (100 Projects)
Result 1: Recruitment and selection of ideas and initiatives to support Main planned activities: – A1. Launch of the call for projects – A2. Organization of Startup Labs over 5 days
2
Collective incubation process
Result 2: Have well-trained young project leaders and functional prototypes of their products – A3. Organization of the batch retreat. – A4. Launch of training on three skill levels: ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS (Business Model; Business Plan) MANAGERIAL SKILLS (Leadership; Communication) FUNCTIONAL SKILLS (Marketing; HR management; Financial management) starting with Values enhancement module – A5. Prototyping workshops
3
Formalization of companies/projects
Result 3: Several companies/projects are formalized and supported in their maturity.
4
post-incubation monitoring and setting up a value chain for each sector and supporting the dynamics of cooperation and exchanges between actors from different territories around the different links in the value chain
Result 4: Set up a value chain for each sector and support the dynamics of cooperation and exchanges between actors from different territories around the different links in the value chain Main planned activities: – A6. Cluster launch workshop. – A7. Implementation and support by international partners for the deployment of the web platform. – A8.Development and animation of an interactive portal.
Informations
Project informations
Project first launching: 2016
Areas of intervention : Local Entrepreneurship
Sub-theme(s) of intervention: Multi-actor network, Agribusiness, Micro and Small enterprises or local industries, decentralized cooperation