Niger: Mohamed Bazoum, the President of Niger, calls on the United Nations to invest more on start-ups in Africa

In Africa, access to financing is a major obstacle for start-ups. To remedy this, governments are turning to international organizations to benefit from their support to develop the sector.

Mohamed Bazoum (photo), the President of the Republic of Niger, invites the United Nations to invest more on start-ups in Africa. In a message sent and read on Monday, March 6 at the Fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5) held until March 9 in Doha, Qatar. The Nigerien president indicated that “start-ups are now considered the engine of structural changes in sustainable economic growth and prosperity“.

“To achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development, it is necessary to invest in a growth-oriented private sector whose start-ups are the engines through innovation for socio-economic development,” he said.

Speaking in his capacity as champion of the African Union for inclusive and sustainable industrialization and productive transformation, the President of Niger took the opportunity to salute the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for its role in the launch of the Start-up Initiative for Africa.

This initiative led to the organization of the 1st Summit of West African Start-ups funded by the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held last year in Niamey, Republic of Niger.

Thus, for the President of Niger, it is time for African governments and leaders, donor organizations and financial institutions to accelerate the start-up registration process, patenting licenses, create favorable markets for their products, train young entrepreneurs, provide them with mentors to help them create/boost their own innovative companies in order to bridge the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

Recall that the African start-up ecosystem raised $6.5 billion in 2022, up 8% compared to 2021, according to “Africa Tech Venture Capital”, a report by Partech Africa, the venture capital fund dedicated to young technology companies in Africa.