The National Chamber of Women Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs of Congo is organizing, from September 16 to 17, 2024 at Radisson Blu in Brazzaville, Cooperative Entrepreneurship Days, with the main theme: “inclusion and development of female entrepreneurship”, under the high patronage of Madame Antoinette Sassou Nguesso, first lady of the Republic of Congo.
The opening ceremony of the Forum, this September 16, was placed under the aegis of Mrs. Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, Minister of Small, Medium Enterprises and Handicrafts, representing the First Lady, Antoinette Sassou Nguesso, patron of the event, in the presence of her colleague, Irène Marie Cécile Mboukou-Kimbatsa, née Goma, Minister of Social Affairs and Humanitarian Action and other main actors of female entrepreneurship. This, for a real strengthening of exchanges between national women entrepreneurs and their foreign and/or international partners.
During this opening day, the first panel presented on “The development of a regional policy for women's SMEs and SMIs, relevance and challenges of the AfCFTA”, with panelists: Mr. Guy Gervais Bouanga, Strategic Expert in Management and Development; Stéphane Tiki, Spokesperson for the Member Organizations of the Development Actors of the France Group, of the Francophone Employers' Association; Ms. Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo and Ms. Annick Patricia Mongo, Director General of the Congolese Investment Promotion Agency. The second panel had the theme: “Entrepreneurship and social impact” with, among other panelists, Ms. Irène Marie Cécile Mboukou-Kimbatsa; Roselyne Tchicaya.
This initiative, which is supported by exclusively female entrepreneurship support organizations, aims to position local women at the epicenter of economic development. The presentations that generate debates constitute an exchange and sharing of experiences, in order to strengthen skills among each other, for a real strategic and sustainable partnership.
It should be noted that the main element of this forum is North-South cooperation, extended to South-South cooperation, which is a major lever for the various initiatives of women entrepreneurs, in order to highlight various possibilities for investment and financing between partners in developed countries and our developing countries.
As a reminder, this forum aims to foster strong and sustainable bridges between African women entrepreneurs and their counterparts in the North. It is about exploring different opportunities through partnerships to boost creativity, innovation, technology and the possibility of access to external, therefore international, markets.
This is a way of boosting entrepreneurship in Congo and the initiative has also been praised by government authorities who have promised to encourage and support women entrepreneurs by providing them with funding and offering them a regulatory framework conducive to their activities.
In short, the Women's Economic Forum held in Brazzaville brings together the world of entrepreneurship to promote North-South cooperation and the development of female entrepreneurship in Congo and throughout Africa.
VALDA SAINT-VAL / The Echoes of Congo-Brazzaville
