OVERVIEW
From required scale to scaling up Jean-Michel Severino, Chairman, Investisseurs & Partenaires
Jean-Michel Severino, Chairman of Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), believes that the priority remains investing in support of the formal African enterprise sector, which is best placed to resolve the Continent’s structural problems. Enormous challenges remain to deliver jobs and a proper future to the burgeoning young African population. In addition to existing support measures and their impacts, the head of I&P stresses the importance of the public subsidies and private funds needed for incubation and acceleration programmes to scale-up African businesses and start-ups.
AN ARTICLE BY JEAN-MICHEL SEVERINO Chairman, Investisseurs & Partenaires
Jean Michel Severino has been chairman of Investisseurs & Partenaires – which manages a number of impact funds dedicated to Sub-Saharan African micro businesses and SMEs – since 2011. He is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Study and Research of International Development (FERDI) and a member of the French Academy of Technologies (Académie des technologies). Jean Michel has worked as director of development at the office of the French Minister for Cooperation, vice-president for East Asia at the World Bank (1996-2000) and chief executive officer of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) from 2001 to 2010.
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n 2012, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) injected a few hundred thousand euros into a fairly old Ivorian business that had radically rethought its skills base and ambitions. The company now known as Conergies-Group was founded in 1977 by Idrissa Sanankoua, originally from Mali but living in Côte d’Ivoire. It began life installing and maintaining refrigeration systems at the port of Abidjan for a number of tuna-exporting firms. Idrissa’s son, Mamadou Sanankoua, a graduate of École polytechnique de Montréal and ESCP Business School, drawing on successful experiences working for major European groups
(Schneider Electric, Daikin, etc.), decided to take the reins of the – still relatively small – family business in 2011. With the help of his brother, Cheick, who has an MBA from Harvard, he now heads up the board of a major African group and is managing partner for a major African investment fund. They harnessed all of their energy to turning Conergies into a dynamic and innovative business specialised in the design, engineering, installation and maintenance of industrial refrigeration and air conditioning systems. In just five years, revenue soared to €8 million, mainly thanks to contracts with big industrial firms, and Conergies now employs 150 people in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire.
Greater political and social stability, buy-in to the economic fabric, provision of employment, access to essential goods and development of domestic public resources are just some of the potential impacts of partnering African businesses.
