Our BACKGROUND

Launched at the G8 Summit in 2002 by founding partners Accenture, Telesystem and the Government of Canada, Enablis was built on an innovative approach to assisting entrepreneurs in developing and emerging countries, leading to sustainable economic development. For the past nineteen years, Enablis has provided entrepreneurs in Africa and Latin America with a suite of services allowing them to grow their businesses and create employment. At Enablis, we have worked with thousands of successful men and women entrepreneurs, and we are very proud of all their remarkable achievements. As an impact investor in Africa for almost twenty-years, I witnessed first-hand the huge obstacles that entrepreneurs in this region face every day. Through its holistic member-based approach, Enablis seeks to help alleviate those challenges and achieve the promise for society of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Going forward, I am confident that Enablis will continue to be a force to harness entrepreneurship and a leader in the MSME development space in Africa. 

 In 2003, I traveled to South Africa for the first time to implement, with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (now Global Affairs Canada) and Accenture, the project which would later be called Enablis. At that time, Enablis was nothing more than a prototype for a model of economic development based on job creation in developing countries. I am proud to say that Enablis is now the largest entrepreneurial network in Africa.

From South Africa, it has expanded to East and West Africa and recently South America. Enablis has undoubtedly succeeded in providing its members with the conditions under which entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive.

As an entrepreneur myself, I know that supporting entrepreneurs is the solution to sustainable and lasting local economic development.