Rural entrepreneurship around innovative productive uses of electricity

Nexans is working in Ivory Coast alongside Fondem to support the emergence of productive uses of electricity through the ERUPIE project (rural entrepreneurship around innovative productive uses of electricity). This partnership, launched in March 2023, will positively impact the economic development, skills, health conditions of rural villages in the Marahoué region.

For the past decade, Ivory Coast has been pursuing an ambitious policy aimed at providing access to electricity for all the country's populations by 2035. This is a key issue to ensure the economic and social development of the country.

Rural populations need support to enable access to electricity, but also to have a real leverage effect on the economic development of rural areas to reduce inequalities.

The objectives of Nexans’ actions, in collaboration with Fondem, are in line with the strategy of Côte d’Ivoire Energie to meet the needs of the Ivorian population in rural areas. As a reminder, Nexans has electrified about fifty villages within the framework of the PRONER project (National rural electrification program) in 2020 and 2021.

Fondem is being supported by the Ivorian NGO AMISTAD (Actions pour la Mobilisation des Initiatives et Stratégies d'Aide au Développement) in the implementation of the ERUPIE project.

Innovative workshops in Abidjan and Bouaflé to launch the ERUPIE project

The launch of the ERUPIE project took place in two stages:

• a launching workshop in Abidjan with institutional actors involved in the promotion of rural and women's entrepreneurship and international organizations concerned by the theme;
• a launching workshop in Bouaflé, in the Marahoué region, with regional actors and local authorities.

Meetings aimed at informing all these actors of the start of the ERUPIE project and to introduce them to the partners of this project. An opportunity to exchange and discuss the various barriers to development in rural areas that have already been electrified and access to female entrepreneurship.

The ERUPIE project will provide technical and entrepreneurial training to seven women from the localities electrified after the PRONER project for their empowerment in business projects in 2023.