Incubator approach to drive youth entrepreneurship, Senegal

• Jul 29, 2025
• 2 min

In response to the persistent barriers faced by young entrepreneurs in Senegal, including limited access to technical skills, infrastructure, mentorship, and financing. MSC partnered with Expresso Innovation Hub as part of the Youth Livelihoods in Digital Financial Services (YLDFS) project to strengthen its incubation approach for youth-led startups. The initiative was designed to build a supportive and scalable ecosystem to nurture entrepreneurship among Senegal’s youth population and drive small business success in a challenging environment.

MSC provided strategic and operational support to the incubator, with a focus on strengthening cohort selection methodologies, embedding financial education, and delivering customized capacity-building support for both incubator staff and startup teams. The engagement involved strategy design, cross-program learning, and development of a structured mentorship framework. We also supported the integration of coaching, training bootcamps, and one-on-one mentorship to guide early-stage entrepreneurs from ideation to execution.

Over the eight-week incubation cycle, startups participated in 12 intensive training sessions and 3 networking meetups, to gain practical exposure to entrepreneurship. One-on-one coaching was provided to refine business models and support early-stage growth. As a result, 129 youth engaged in structured meetups, 23 jobs were created in the month following the incubation, and select participants secured contracting opportunities or advanced product development efforts. The program also led to improved understanding of formalization, financial management, and iterative prototyping techniques among youth entrepreneurs. For Expresso, the project strengthened its internal incubation methodology, promoted ecosystem collaboration, and laid the foundation for competency-based, scalable incubation programs. The initiative offered a robust model to prepare startups for market entry and financing and is expected to serve as a replicable framework for other youth-focused incubators in the region.

The Mastercard Foundation commissioned the project.