The African Development Bank is providing 126.32 million euros and the Bank Group’s concessional rate loan window 13.36 million euros to help define youth profiles in line with the needs of the youth market. employment.
The Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund approved, on December 18, 2024 in Abidjan, cumulative loans of 139.68 million euros to Côte d’Ivoire to carry out the Project. improving skills, entrepreneurship and youth employment.
In this financing, explains a press release, the African Development Bank provides 126.32 million euros and the Bank Group’s concessional rate loan window 13.36 million euros in order to help define profiles in line with the needs of the job market with the aim of increasing the rate of socio-professional integration of young people. The project aims to support young Ivorians in the creation of viable businesses, to stimulate the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in particular, and the private sector in general, in order to drive demand for jobs towards the high.
“The approval of this project represents an important step in the deployment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) initiative which aims to reduce youth unemployment through entrepreneurship. The Bank will work closely with the Ivorian authorities and key stakeholders for the implementation of the YEIB initiative in Côte d’Ivoire,” said Ahmed Attout, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department at the African Development Bank. .
“Financing from the African Development Bank Group will help Côte d’Ivoire address youth employment challenges by equipping them with the skills required for the productive private sector. The project which has just been approved will support young people in Côte d’Ivoire in their entrepreneurial journey or their socio-professional integration, through targeted investments in the development of skills, employability, entrepreneurship, including access financial and non-financial services, the development of micro and small and medium enterprises and the private sector in general,” said Joseph Ribeiro, Deputy Managing Director of the African Development Bank for West Africa.
In order to align the training offer with the needs of the Ivorian productive private sector, the project will rely on a wide range of partnerships with industrial confederations, private sector companies, incubators, service providers and agropoles, to increase reception capacities and improve learning conditions in training infrastructures. More than 8,700 young people, 50% of whom are women, will be trained and reintegrated into five sectors with high potential for growth and job creation, namely renewable energies, the digital economy, agribusiness, the economy blue, the textile and clothing industry.
This project will facilitate the creation of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) of Côte d’Ivoire in order to increase access to financing for MSMEs as well as support for actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The YEIB will support young entrepreneurs through technical assistance services, equity and quasi-equity financing and the provision of guarantees to encourage local banks to lend more to young people.
In the agribusiness sector in particular, the project will benefit from lessons and good practices from similar projects of the Bank and technical and financial partners, to scale up the conclusive tests of the pilot phase of the initiative. Enable Youth” (https://apo-opa.co/3BC1iwW) in Ivory Coast and other countries.
Finally, in partnership with the Autonomous Port of Abidjan, the national training center for harbor master officers will be rehabilitated and equipped with a state-of-the-art technical platform, including a port maneuver simulator, in order to bring it up to international standards for make a regional center.
In total, the project should generate the creation of 43,216 direct jobs and 153,094 indirect jobs by 2030, with a target of 50% women. In addition, it will finance the training, including in companies, of more than 214 trainer-teachers, and will provide multifaceted support to a dozen entrepreneurship support organizations with a view to strengthening the ecosystem.
TE/APA
