Togo - Project to Support Young and Women Entrepreneurs in Job-Creating Value Chains

The proposed project aims to consolidate and strengthen the results achieved through the value chain approach that was successfully piloted under the Support Project for Youth Employability and Integration in Growth Sector (PAEIJ-SP). Approved by the AfDB Board of Directors on 22 August 2016, the PAEIJ-SP has supported 1,420 young individual entrepreneurs and 3,178 farmers’ groups whose incomes have increased on average by 41%. The project has created 55,397 direct jobs and supported 41 agro-industrial SMEs whose average turnover has risen from XOF 80 million to XOF 1.8 billion. The project will capitalise on the experience of the PAEIJ-SP, in terms of technical assistance and public-private partnership for the financing of young entrepreneurs. It intends to structure clusters around these SMEs and the new ones being identified, to create employment opportunities for young people and women. The project targets natural persons or legal entities producing marketable goods or services, employing less than 200 people, and whose annual turnover does not exceed XOF 1 billion, as defined in Togo’s MSME Charter of November 2021. The implementation strategy is based on the value-added chain (VAC) approach and the development of agro-industrial clusters, which consists in identifying SMEs in sectors with high growth potential, providing them with quality technical assistance and financing tailored to their needs, as well as supporting and integrating young entrepreneurs into their supply and distribution chains, thereby creating job opportunities.