Mr. Edwin Zu-Cudjoe, the Executive Director of Social Enterprise Ghana (SE), has revealed that his outfit is committed to fostering a strategic business partnership between Ghanaian social enterprises and the French business community.
The Executive Director made this disclosure during an engagement with more than 60 French businesses during the New Africa France Summit.
“It is very imperative for institutions like us to have close partnerships with our French counterparts.
“Though synergies between French and Anglophone speaking countries are low, we trust a close relationship between Social Enterprise and French entities will be pivotal to dealing with the challenges and also maximizing the opportunities in the social Enterprise arena.”
Mr. Edwin Zu-Cudjoe
Mr. Zu-Cudjoe called on the French Development Agency and its sister organisations – Proparco, BPI and Business France to seed the Ghana Social Enterprise Fund.
This, he disclosed, would help to provide long term patient capital to social entrepreneurs, female and young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs with disability to procure equipment and infrastructure.
The French Ambassador to Ghana, Anne Sophie Avé, was called upon by Mr. Zu-Cudjoe to help develop specific programmes targeted at young female entrepreneurs that are creating jobs and services especially for vulnerable communities.
Africa French Summit
Hundreds of young people from African “civil society” gathered for the one-day Africa France summit in the southern French city of Montpellier.
For the first time since 1973 when France Africa summits began and before it was rebranded, ‘Africa France’, no African head of state was invited to the summit, reports disclose.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron invited 3,000 people for the summit, including young entrepreneurs, researchers, students, artists and sports personalities.
Also included were representatives from associations on the African continent who met their French national counterparts and members of the African diaspora to discuss economic, political, and cultural matters.
Ismael Buchanan, senior lecturer at the political science department at the University of Rwanda, suggested the new summit format is about Macron‘s “politics of reform towards France-Africa relations”.
According to Buchanan, France aims at shifting its strategy toward Africa by moving from classic bilateral relations with governments to dealing with Africa’s young-led generation, and African civil society organizations.
“Maybe he [Macron] thinks that this type of relationship may build a sort of trust and change the historical complexity between France and Africa.”
Ismael Buchanan
Macron said France must assume its fair share of “Africanness,” noting that nearly 7 million French people are intimately linked to Africa.
Social Enterprise Ghana (SE Ghana)
The Social Enterprise Ghana (SE Ghana) is the national network for high-impact social entrepreneurs in Ghana.
SE Ghana has a current membership of 720 social enterprises operating in diverse sectors of climate-smart agribusiness, circular economy, health services, inclusive financial services, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and education.
SE Ghana advocates for business-friendly policies for social enterprises and supports members with training, research, access to skills, access to market, access to technology and access to finance.
SE Ghana has a goal of increasing funding to social enterprises by catalysing US$1billion dollars for social enterprises in Ghana by 2030.
The event saw other entrepreneurs and investors like Food for All Africa, Leti Arts, Kaeme, Sekbi Bogolan, Innohub, Oasis Capital, among others in attendance.
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