Supporting business acceleration and entrepreneurial ecosystem expansion in Senegal
Senegal has a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem yet many local entrepreneurs still struggle to recognize the value of business development services and capitalize on market opportunities. To thrive as agile leaders, entrepreneurs need real-time feedback to adapt and pivot their businesses effectively. At the same time, business development service providers require better access to market information and a hub to assess their profitability.
The USAID Entrepreneurship & Investment Activity, implemented by Winrock International, identified these and other significant constraints to growth including lack of ecosystem connectivity, limited business evaluation and support identification, low access to mentorship opportunities, services and financing, and difficulties faced by service providers in finding clients. To address these issues, the activity team launched Wekomkom − which means “developing together” in Wolof, a main language spoken in Senegal − in April 2024. The new platform connects entrepreneurs, business development services, investors, industry mentors and coaches to promote market responsiveness and delivery of sustainable business incubation and acceleration services.
Activity team members created Wekomkom in collaboration with Concree, a technical partner and lead venture firm that provides information technology solutions to entrepreneurs in Senegal. Concree designed the platform specifications, built functionalities and convened partners for beta testing.
Since its launch, Wekomkom has reached more than 1,988 users, 349 business profiles, 51 business development service provider profiles, and 62 business development service offerings for entrepreneurs who are registered on the platform. Now fully developed and operational, and the USAID Entrepreneurship & Investment activity team is widely promoting the platform with Concree to garner interest, increase the number of users and facilitate its adoption across the business ecosystem in Senegal.
USAID Entrepreneurship & Investment is boosting platform registration through an incentivization voucher mechanism to support business development services providers and increase entrepreneurial engagement. The project organized a selection committee to identify and award vouchers to 18 entrepreneurs; vouchers can be used to invest in business development services through Wekomkom. The total amount allocated by the activity to support the voucher mechanism is $4,680.
On May 14, 2024, Activity team members partnered with Feed the Future’s Doleel Mbay, Nafoore Warsadji, and the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship in Senegal to organize entrepreneurs’ participation in FIARA − the International Fair of Agriculture and Animal Resources. Main goals of the event included inspiring entrepreneurs and promoting Wekomkom and the opportunities it offers.
The platform is open and available to all entrepreneurs across Senegal, facilitating synergies between entrepreneurs and other business ecosystem participants interested in learning about advisory services and gaining access to potential clients.
Throughout the life of the USAID Entrepreneurship & Investment Activity, this innovative platform is expected to reach 50,000 registered users, provide 2,500 services through platform matchings, facilitate 500 financial transactions and enable 10,000 connections between business development service providers and entrepreneurs.
Wekomkom is now providing an integrated solution that fosters collaboration across entrepreneurs, business development service providers, mentors and investors in one virtual space, enabling seamless communication, resources sharing and business evaluation in Senegal.
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