In November, BIC Africa organised the national bootcamp for Comorian Business Incubation experts. Organised in collaboration with the APILE Comoros Project, the bootcamp brought together 18 participants representing 12 business incubators across from Comoros archipelago for two days of intensive learning and collaboration held on 26th and 27th November in Moroni.
Building on the pervious BIC Africa national bootcamps, the Comoros bootcamp was designed based on the needs assessment carried out. The objective was to help Comorian business incubators to improve support to entrepreneurs and their client companies. The programme focused on building the capacity of business incubators, exploring financing models for both incubators and startups, introducing management and evaluation tools, and fostering a collaborative dynamic among ecosystem actors. The bootcamp included conceptual learning with hands-on application.
On the first day, the event opened with remarks from Anziz Abdoul SAID ATTOUMANE National Coordinator for APILE Comoros Project at UNIDO, who emphasized the importance of the national bootcamp and the continuous capacity building to strengthen the business incubation support in Comoros. The topics concentrated on financing, examining how incubators can secure resources and how startups can access funding opportunities. The second day shifted to performance management, with sessions on identifying indicators and KPIs, designing dashboards using tools such as Looker and Power BI, and applying data-driven approaches to monitoring, evaluation, and benchmarking.
The methods used throughout the bootcamp combined presentations, group exercises, and practical demonstrations. Participants worked with demo data and engaged in live demonstrations using ESTIA’s real-world data and tools. ESTIA is an EU|BIC-certified incubator located in the Basque region of France and was represented at the Bootcamp by Mathieu Bidart. The tools allowed participants to immediately test concepts and see their relevance in practice. where they can adopt into their context that will help them to improve their business incubation financial management and services quality for future operations. This blend of theory and application gave attendees the chance to understand not only the principles behind effective incubator management but also how to implement them in real-world contexts.
The bootcamp closed with reflections from Marie-Ange Bonnescuelle de Lespinois, Program Officer at the Delegation of the European Union to Madagascar to the Union of the Comoros, who highlighted the collective achievements of the participants and the momentum generated over the two days. The participants also noted that the financial and practical components were particularly valuable, with the KPI analysis exercises and live demonstrations providing a clear sense of how data can be harnessed to improve incubator performance and startup success.
The bootcamp was organised by EBN through the BIC Africa project, funded by the European Union, and facilitated by experts from the EU|BIC community, Mathieu BIDART from ESTIA Entreprendre and Antoine Tetart from Laval Technopole.
We extend our sincere gratitude to all participants for their commitment and for sharing their innovative ideas. We appreciate the support of the expert facilitators, the APILE Comoros team, the Delegation of the European Union to Madagascar to the Union of the Comoros for their crucial support and collaboration for the bootcamp.