Supporting the creative economy in East Africa

The cultural and creative industries (CCI) sector is today largely driven by individual, associative or private initiatives which are facing difficulties in accessing funding, particularly from banks, and still low investment from public authorities. This strongly limits the emergence of viable cultural enterprises and a dynamic cultural economy.

Kenya is one of the African countries whose textile industry is one of the most exportable outside the continent. In 2017, the sector will employ 66,000 people, the majority of whom will be women and people under 35 years of age. Through calls for projects, Heva Fund selects companies active in the fashion and design sector, which are looking for seed funding. Given the dynamism of the CCI sector in Kenya, Heva Fund seeks to develop its activity in support of entrepreneurs in the cultural sector.

Through this project AFD contributes to the consolidation of SMEs supported by the Heva Fund and enables it to offer larger loans for growth financing for the most developed cultural businesses and to extend its action to other creative sectors and other East African countries.

The project aims to :

• Facilitate access to growth financing for around twenty companies in the creative sector, resulting in the industrialisation of their activity and the strengthening of their structure
• Foster the capacity building of the CCI ecosystem in Kenya and the region through capacity building of cultural entrepreneurs
• Promote the production of studies on the various CCI sectors in order to develop arguments on the economic and social development impacts of CCIs and to advocate for this with public authorities and the private sector.

• Boosting the economic structure of CCIs in East Africa through an adapted offer of financing and support.
• Strengthening the entrepreneurial skills of project leaders.