Supporting women entrepreneurs

A business incubation center will be established in Seychelles next year following the virtual signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Seychelles chapter of the COMESA Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB) and the Kenyan Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI).

The agreement, signed on Wednesday, proposes a partnership to offer a business incubation and training program for young men and women across Seychelles. COMFWB Seychelles will be the starting point for mentoring young people and women-led businesses. KIRDI, for its part, will bring its expertise in product development and leverage current partnerships to enhance the capabilities of Seychelles’ SMEs.

The president of the Seychelles chapter of COMFWB, Claudette Albert, stated, « This is an important step for us in terms of capacity building; we will be able to develop our support and incubation program by next year. We are already offering training programs for incubation, such as the fish skin product development project ».

COMFWB Seychelles also benefits from the support of the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (CEPS). There is already a project for the construction of the CEPS House, which includes environmental and economic aspects. This laboratory will be built as the first incubation center and will address these aspects. Entrepreneurs will have access to equipment and premises without having to incur significant installation costs upfront.

The European Union is contributing 2 million SCR (142,000 USD) towards the necessary equipment. COMESA is also supporting the project through its technical assistance program.