About GEN Benin

GEN began working in Benin when it partnered with FORAM Initiatives in the early 2010s to conduct Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). A success from the outset, the campaign mobilized partners and engaged thousands of participants. The 2012 edition reached more than 3,500 people — introducing a culture of entrepreneurship to students, young founders, and rural communities at a time when youth unemployment was a pressing national concern.

As the grassroots community behind GEW coalesced, GEN established a national affiliate – GEN Benin – to continue building GEW and conduct year-round activities that support the ecosystem. Led by Olusegun Charles Vidjannagni, one of GEN Benin’s first programs was "Cup of Cop," which brings founders together through team sports designed to spark networking and collaboration in an informal outdoor setting. GEN also runs an innovative program in Benin during GEW that uses chess to build teamwork, problem-solving, and analytical skills among startup teams. It also sends dozens of entrepreneurs back to their former secondary schools to share their journeys and encourage the next generation.

In 2025, GEN successfully piloted a connected set of events on university campuses throughout the country. The GEW On Campus program proved to be an effective way to foster entrepreneurial mindset among students, strengthen employability and innovation skills and connect academic learning with real-world problem solving. Because it responds directly to the government’s vision of bridging education, practical skills, and entrepreneurial action, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Leisure approved support for its implementation across the country. Given the national alignment around youth empowerment, skills development, and job creation, GEN Benin elevated it to flagship initiative status.

GEN connects Beninese founders to its flagship global programs. Through the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) — a global pitch competition GEN launched in 2019, offering free training, mentorship, and a share of $1 million in annual prizes — GEN has encouraged Beninese startups to compete on the global stage. GEN has also opened doors for individual founders: in 2025, Ida Pascaline Houédoté, GEN member and the founder of Africaroma, was selected as a mentor in the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) GROW-UP program. On the investment side, the Benin Business Angels Network joined GEN's Global Business Angels Network, extending the country's links to early-stage investors worldwide.

Benin's government has been an active participant in GEN's Startup Nations community, GEN’s forum for entrepreneurship policymakers. Beninese ministers have engaged with GEN over multiple years, including Alassane Djimba Soumanou, Minister of Vocational Training, in 2012, and Safiou Idrissou Affo, Minister of Youth and Sports, in 2013, with later representation from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts through Bruno Anagonou. Government ministers also participated in GEN's Ministerial Meetings at its flagship Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC). The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Employment Promotion is a key partner. Its engagement with GEN deepened in 2024 when it commissioned GEN Benin to map the country's ecosystem leaders and stakeholders, assess how well public programs meet entrepreneurs' needs, and deliver feedback and policy recommendations — work that has positioned GEN as a candid, evidence-driven voice on where the ecosystem can improve.

One of Benin's most significant entrepreneurship milestones came in 2020, when the country took its business registration online. Connected to GEN's Global Enterprise Registration (GER) program — GEN's collaboration with UNCTAD that simplifies and automates the administrative procedures that affect founders — Benin's eRegistration platform allows entrepreneurs to register a new company and receive business documents from a mobile phone. The process now takes just 10 minutes and founders receive their certificates within two hours. The reform made Benin, jointly with Estonia, the fastest place in the world to start a company by mobile phone. Within months of the launch, the number of companies created through the platform tripled, reaching roughly 3,600 applications a month. A third of these new founders were women, half were under 30, and half were based outside the commercial capital, Cotonou. "My staff now spend more time advising clients and less time pushing paper," said Laurent Gangbes, Director-General of Benin's investment and export promotion agency. "They are more productive and we are collecting private sector data that helps shape our economic policy."

GEN maintains extensive relationships with key Beninese ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Employment Promotion, the Benin Business Angels Network, and FORAM Initiatives. These connections sit within a fast-maturing national ecosystem anchored by Sèmè City, the International City of Innovation and Knowledge launched as a government flagship project, and supported by a growing roster of hubs and incubators such as EtriLabs and TEKXL. Since 2022, GEN has collaborated with organizations that span ideation, incubation, acceleration, and fundraising. This Federation of Support Structures for Innovative Entrepreneurship (FedSAEI) gives the ecosystem a more coordinated, professional, and influential voice.

GEN’s president, Jonathan Ortmans, has praised Benin’s “remarkable progress” and called the innovative GEW On Campus program “a powerful way to promote youth engagement” and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. Through its multiple programs and original research, GEN’s ongoing mission in Benin is to strengthen the networks, knowledge, and policies that allow the country’s founders – many of them young, rural or women – to build viable businesses and connect to opportunities well beyond Benin's borders.