OBUS 3370 - Entrepreneurship in Africa

You are given the opportunity to explore the specificities of building a business in Africa, meet entrepreneurs, learn from their experiences, and strengthen your skills to better navigate the complexities you may face.

Within this framework, a dedicated course is offered to highlight the key characteristics that differentiate venture creation and growth in Africa from other regions of the world. The course consists of six sessions of two hours, designed and delivered by Abderrahmane Chaoui, Chief Exploration Officer at Sendemo, and features a variety of entrepreneurs sharing invaluable insights.

Abderrahmane Chaoui & Sendemo :

Abderrahmane has over 10 years of experience in entrepreneurship and innovation. He first co-founded a biotech company in Paris in 2013 before joining Fabernovel, an innovation and design agency, as a Lead Strategist. There, he advised more than 15 large organizations on innovation and digital transformation strategies and led research initiatives focused on the New Economy.

This experience sparked his strong interest in entrepreneurship in Africa, leading him to teach at Sciences Po as early as 2019–2020. Since 2021, Abderrahmane has been the Founder and Chief Exploration Officer of Sendemo, a research-based consultancy dedicated to strengthening African startup ecosystems.

Sendemo acts as a pan-African ecosystem enabler, analyzing trends and complex environments to help stakeholders define the right strategies and roles. Its mission is to support the creation of thriving ecosystems where entrepreneurs can develop and scale solutions in key sectors such as education, healthcare, energy, agriculture, financial inclusion, and logistics.

Objectives of the course / Over the 12 sessions, you will gain :

• Nuanced perspectives on entrepreneurship beyond general frameworks
• A deeper understanding of key structural and contextual challenges
• Inspiration through concrete case studies of entrepreneurs overcoming these challenges
• Tools and insights to refine your understanding of a specific market or industry

Master

Each session is structured as follows:

1-hour plenary lecture led by Abderrahmane

15-minute Q&A

30-minute guided discussion with a guest speaker

(investor, entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, or institutional stakeholder depending on the session)

15-minute Q&A