Project to support entrepreneurship in Benin

In January 2020, Benin passed the law for the promotion and development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with two objectives:

1. Create a legal, institutional and financial framework conducive to the development of entrepreneurship in Benin.
2. Establish a specific system for aid from the State and local authorities for companies to take into account their specific requirements and their vulnerability to regional and international competition.

This law is part of the Government’s objective of making micro, small and medium-sized enterprises key players in the structural transformation of Benin’s economy.

Following on from this, in March 2022, the Government officially created the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ADPME) as a single window for the promotion and development of MSMEs. This agency’s mission is to unify and ensure consistency between all public measures to support MSMEs, with an integrated range of services for assistance, guidance, and the facilitation of financing and access to markets for MSMEs.

As part of its operationalisation, the ADPME is implementing the project to support entrepreneurship with technical assistance from Expertise France.

The project to support entrepreneurship in Benin aims to contribute to streamlining and improving the quality of the range of services for technical and financial assistance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Its objective is also to create an institutional environment more conducive to the development of high-growth, inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship generating added value at local level.

It is based on three lines of action:

• Build the capacities of the public and private entrepreneurship ecosystem in Benin and support the operationalisation of the single window
• Increase the density of the local economic fabric through technical and financial assistance to first-time entrepreneurs and start-ups
• Increase the competitiveness of SMEs with high growth potential and in the strategic sectors of Benin’s economy

Through the project, MSMEs can benefit from financial and non-financial services to strengthen the structuring of companies and promote the development of their business and job creation.