Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, AFD, and Expertise France Celebrate the Success of the FAST Project
The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) and Expertise France, organized the closing ceremony of the FAST (Women and Acceleration for Tunisian Startups and SMEs) project on Tuesday, November 26, at the Palais des Lettres et des Arts, Ksar Saïd.
This €5.5 million project, funded by the AFD, supported 788 initiatives, with 82% led by women.
The FAST project is part of a global context where entrepreneurship is a key driver for job creation and economic empowerment, particularly for young people and women. In Tunisia, although women make up 67% of graduates, they only represent 26% of the active population.
This disparity highlights the importance of initiatives like FAST, which aim to support female entrepreneurship, especially in the country's interior regions, where challenges are more pronounced.
The success of FAST adds to other initiatives such as the Start Up Act (2018) and the ENLIEN project (closed in 2022), which have strengthened the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
According to Néjia Gharbi, Director General of the CDC, the partnership with the AFD, established since 2017, has been a success. She emphasized that while ENLIEN had exceeded its objectives, FAST had surpassed expectations, with remarkable results.
The FAST project has enabled the creation of 1,834 jobs through 17 supported initiatives, nearly half of which have a positive social or environmental impact. Furthermore, 63.5% of the created jobs were occupied by women.
During the ceremony, Anne Guéguen, French Ambassador to Tunisia, recalled the commitment of the French team since 2018 to support Tunisian entrepreneurship, with over €52 million mobilized for various initiatives.
The closing of the FAST project marks not only the success of a program supporting female entrepreneurship but also a springboard for a promising future for the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
