Read the full transcript of our twitter Q&A session with Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC Vice President, on the African private sector's growth subject.

1. @africaceoforum
Q&A session with
Jean-Philippe Prosper, IFC
1. What projects are planned to give visibility to the
innovations of young Africans?
RESPONSE: SA Entrepreneur Award and others raise visibility. bit.ly/13yo3fG
Find SME Toolkit for your country. bit.ly/1oNHzbU
I am very excited that rapid growth in the region is
unleashing innovations from young African talent.
Recognizing entrepreneurs and helping them
gain better access to finance is important. IFC has
a range of programs to support and give visibility
to early-stage businesses and entrepreneurs.
To give just one example of how we are providing
increased visibility, IFC initiated a Young Entrepre-neur
Business Plan competition in South Africa,
encouraging entrepreneurs under 35 to apply.
The competition was launched through the South
Africa SME Toolkit website that is an innovation
of IFC and IBM. The awards program was also
sponsored Business Partners Limited, who we
have worked with in different markets to incubate
and finance growing small and medium busi-nesses.
The competition has expanded in the last
few years under Business Parnters leadership and
continues be organized through the SME Toolkit
(http://southafrica.smetoolkit.org/sa/en/content/
en/55330/Winner-announced-for-competition-acknowledging-
aspiring-young-entrepreneurs).
There are other examples in DRC, Liberia, Nige-ria,
among other countries, of entrepreneurs and
their businesses supported by IFC being reco-gnized
by IFC or third party awards for the high
quality of innovation in entrepreneurship. This
type of visibility is significant. It brings entrepre-neurs’
work to the attention of the larger business
community and to prospective financiers. It is an
important way to help entrepreneurs find the sup-port
they need.
2. What are the available financing programs for African
entrepreneurs?
RESPONSE: Microfinance, specialized funds, inst that focus on SMEs are all
critical to access to finance for start ups in Africa.
African entrepreneurs need more than just fi-nancing,
but, of course, money is important for
expanding businesses. There are a lot of tools
IFC has at its disposal to ensure that entrepre-neurs
are able to develop their ideas.
To reach the largest number of businesses and
make sure that entrepreneurs get the full range
of support and service they need, IFC’s finan-cing
to smaller businesses is largely delivered
through local financial institutions and funds.
For example, IFC has supported the largest
network of greenfield microfinance institutions
in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are helping networks
like Accion and FINCA expand in West and
Central Africa.
IFC is also helping financial institutions that

2. Q&A session with
Jean-Philippe Prosper, IFC
specialize in small and medium enterprises. We
have helped banks like Sasfin and Mercantile
Bank in South Africa. We are also helping the
largest banks in the South Africa expand their
SME lending.
In some of the smaller markets, we have encouraged
specialized funds that focus on smaller businesses.
For example, IFC has supported the creation of the
the West Africa Venture Fund in Liberia and Sierra
Leone and the Central Africa SME Fund.
Another interesting program IFC has suppor-ted
is the Africa Micro, Small, and Medium
Enterprise Finance Program. This program has
supported nearly 30 banks with financing and
advisory services that help them establish or
expand lending to microenterprises and SMEs.
Leasing can provide an alternative financial me-chanism
for small enterprises in the region, but
the legal and regulatory environment needs to
be in place first. In partnership with Switzerland
and other development partners, IFC launched
the Africa Leasing Facility to increase access to
finance for small businesses in 15 countries.
The program sought to create an enabling envi-ronment
for the leasing sector by drafting lea-sing
laws and regulations, raising public aware-ness,
and publishing market reports. We also
built the capacity of lessors and other stakehol-ders
through training and by providing banks
and other financial institutions with in-depth
advisory services.
At the end of the first phase in 2012, the pro-gram
had trained more than 10,500 people,
drafted about 30 leasing laws or regulations
(16 of which were enacted), completed about
30 leasing assessments, and provided advisory
services to close to 80 entities.
For example, with the project’s support, the
Cameroonian government passed a leasing law
that has stimulated the sector, increasing lea-sing
volumes to almost $200 million in 2011,
and established an association of Cameroonian
lease providers.
So IFC’s support for access to finance is delive-red
through a wide range of projects and pro-grams.
3. Does IFC propose or supports training programs for
young African Entrepreneurs?
RESPONSE: SME Toolkit bit.ly/1oNHzbU and Business Edge bit.ly/1zA3m02
are part of IFC’s SME Management Solutions Africa Program.
http://www.businessedge-africa.com/
http://www.smetoolkit.org/smetoolkit/en
Training is very important to help start-up busi-nesses
grow. While small businesses may have
a rapid start, they often fail to capitalize on
growth because productivity of SMEs can be
very low. Entrepreneurs often want to upgrade
skills and that of their staff, but the quality and
price of management information and training
is mixed. It ranges from subsidized services of
varied quality to focused corporate offerings
aimed at senior executives.
One solution has been the SME Management
Solutions Africa program. The aim of the pro-gram
is to address these management skills
gaps and increase the performance, growth,
and revenues of small businesses in the region,
and expand their access to markets, by 2014.
The program has set up a reliable market infor-mation
system for one million small businesses by
using the SME Toolkit, an IFC online training plat-form
that helps to improve management prac-tices
and share other relevant information. It has
also offered scalable and sustainable platforms
to deliver management training to 15,000 small
business managers. This is delivered through
Business Edge, an IFC product delivered by local
trainers that strengthens the management skills of
small business owners. This program covered 22
countries and resulted in 23,253 small businesses
receiving IFC-facilitated training, of which 9,219
were women entrepreneurs.

3. Q&A session with
Jean-Philippe Prosper, IFC
4. Are there structures in Africa, state or private,
specialized in supporting young entrepreneurs?
RESPONSE: Entrepreneurs should participate in local business associations,
work with financiers with vested interest in your success.
There are a range of resources available, although
they may not seem accessible in many situations,
particularly to the smallest businesses. We encou-rage
entrepreneurs to participate in local business
associations to learn about what is available in
your market. One of the tools that IFC has used to
encourage entrepreneurs to improve their perfor-mance
has been to support specialized funds and
microfinance institutions. Financiers can develop
a relationship with their clients that help them
address needs that are holding back growth. In
coordination with a fund established with Busi-ness
Partners International in Kenya, for example,
we supported a business incubation center
5. How is IFC Africa supporting media startups ?
RESPONSE: IFC aims to improve access to info infra and svcs, and media to
promote innovation and grassroots entrepreneurship.
IFC focuses on improving access to information in-frastructure
and services, as well as using media to
expand the delivery of public and private services
and promote innovation in industry and grass-roots
entrepreneurship. Access to these services is
fundamental to expanding the reach of develop-ment.
In Africa, this has translated largely into sup-port
for mobile telecom operators, related voice
and data infrastructure, and supporting a range of
technology oriented projects and funds.
6. What are the outlines of IFC Africa’s infrastructure
financing strategy?
RESPONSE: IFC puts a priority on infrastructure that spurs economic growth
and improves living standards. Power is priority #1.
IFC puts a priority on infrastructure that spurs
economic growth and improves living standards.
IFC invested $1.1 billion in infrastructure projects
across sub Saharan Africa in our 2014 fiscal year.
A few examples of how our priority is playing out
in different markets. This included Cote d’Ivoire’s
Azito, CIPREL thermal power plant and the Sin-gida
Wind Farm in Tanzania, which will improve
power supply and ease shortages.
Under the World Bank Group Energy Busi-ness
Plan, which brings together the policy
expertise of the World Bank and the capacity
of MIGA to mitigate risk and mobilize gua-rantees,
IFC aims to catalyze investments to
add 1,500 megawatts of capacity to the Nige-rian
national grid. The added capacity should
provide electricity for up to 8.0 million house-holds
over the next 18 months.

4. Q&A session with
Jean-Philippe Prosper, IFC
7. What does the IFC do to close the access to finance
gap for SMEs, and innovators?
RESPONSE: IFC is supporting a range of specialized financial institutions, and
programs aimed at smaller businesses.
I would refer back to the earlier question on what
we are doing to help finance entrepreneurs in
Africa, where I cited a number of projects and
programs that are helping create more access to
finance.
I would also draw your attention to the Partnership
for Financial Inclusion is a joint initiative of IFC and
The MasterCard Foundation to expand microfi-nance
and advance mobile financial services in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The Partnership is also sup-ported
by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB,
Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG), and col-laborates
with knowledge partners such as the
World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist
the Poor, CGAP. The program aims to increase
access to financial services through technological
innovation and support trends in this area.
There are also efforts that IFC is undertaking to
increase productivity and innovation in critical
sectors of the economy. In Africa, more than any
other industry, agribusiness has the potential to
reduce poverty and drive economic growth.
Agriculture accounts for nearly half of the conti-nent’s
GDP, and employs 60 percent of the labor
force. The World Bank estimates that by 2030,
agriculture could develop into a $ 1 trillion in-dustry
in Sub-Saharan Africa. So this is an impor-tant
industry, where we are looking for innovators
across the sector who can innovate.
By focusing on intensifying agricultural produc-tion
with improved, sustainable practices, Afri-can
agriculture can transform the continent. This
means focusing on agricultural models that are
resilient to climate change and that make the
most of scarce resources, such as water.
It also means working closely with smallholder
farmers, who represent 80% of all farms on the
continent and almost 90% of all food crop pro-duction.
IFCs sees the private sector playing a crucial role
in addressing agriculture’s pressing challenges –
such as expanding production, climate change,
resource efficiency and clean energy. IFC contri-butes
most directly in this sector towards access to
finance. We fund large, transformational projects,
and work with banks, traders, and other interme-diaries
of all sizes to ensure that finance reaches
small farmers. We are also helping growing com-panies
improve their environmental and social
standards, create more innovative supply chains,
and supporting infrastructure to help this sector
grow.
8. Is financing infrastructure projects the best way
to support the African Private Sector?
RESPONSE: There is no question that that Africa rapidly improve its
infrastructure to manage growth and improve living standards.
There is no question that if Africa does not rapi-dly
improve its infrastructure that it will not be
able to manage growth. Let me take this oppor-tunity
to also address why infrastructure is so
important in Africa, and especially in fragile and
conflict situations that are sadly too prevalent
on the continent.
Today, almost 450 million people live in fragile
and conflict situations. The World Bank Group
has classified over 30 countries and territories
around the world as FCS, with most of them in
Africa.

5. Q&A session with
Jean-Philippe Prosper, IFC
By 2030, nearly half of the world’s poor will
be living in countries affected by fragility and
conflict. Today, IFC’s investment in these mar-kets
makes up only about $1 billion of the $22
billion IFC committed and mobilized last year,
but we expect to see this figure rise in coming
years. In FCS, where inequality and unemploy-ment
are high and infrastructure is destroyed,
most jobs are in the informal sector.
Economic growth is fragile and will only happen
if private enterprises are able to grow, create
employment, provide the goods and services
people need, and generate the tax revenue
that allows governments to provide essential
services.The private sector cannot develop in
a vacuum. We need an approach that works
together with government and leverages the
power of the World Bank and our development
partners.
I’ll finish with a specific example of how infras-tructure
can be developed in countries emer-ging
from a conflict, and how it can become a
focal point for further development, as it was in
Cote d’Ivoire.
Azito Power Plant
IFC worked with the government, WBG par-tners
and other DFIs to meet growing electricity
demand.
To modernize the country’s worn-out Azito
power plant IFC arranged a $345-million pac-kage
funded by five European development
finance institutions and the West African Deve-lopment
Bank, and provided $125 million of its
own funds
The World Bank put in place the regulatory fra-mework
for investing in the sector and MIGA
provided political risk insurance to the investors.
Today, Azito is one of sub Saharan Africa’s
largest independent power generators and will
produce 50% more energy without using addi-tional
gas, serving 2 million more people.