About GEN in Chad

Chad

GEN began operating in Chad in 2017, when it partnered with RJDLT (Réseau des Jeunes pour le Développement et le Leadership au Tchad) to initiate Global Entrepreneurship Week in the country. The inaugural campaign had 150 events spanning six themes: entrepreneurial culture, digital technology and innovation, agricultural and agri-food entrepreneurship, craft and design, investment, and civic and social innovation.

Anchored at the Palais du 15 Janvier in N'Djamena and the Hilton, the week combined an N'Djamena Startup Week, a Forum to Invest in Chad, and an Agrobusiness Festival, drawing thousands of participants in a country whose startup sector was only beginning to take shape. GEN and RJDLT worked in collaboration with WENAKLABS, the NIRVANA Organization, the National Investment and Export Agency (ANIE), and the Chamber of Commerce of Chad. The government was involved from the beginning with three ministries endorsing the initial campaign.

After the first celebration, GEW became a fixture of Chad's entrepreneurial calendar, returning in 2018 with a strong agribusiness focus and a closing "Entrepreneurs Night" at the Palais du 15 Janvier, and again in 2019 for its third consecutive edition. As the annual campaign matured, GEN worked to align the ecosystem by convening its leaders. GEN and this coalition saw the need for year-round programming and formed a national affiliate, GEN Chad, to carry this work forward under the leadership of Christian Ndonga Mohamed Routouang.

GEN Chad organized the 2024 GEW campaign with a distinctly inclusive character: the Chad Innovation Hub in N'Djamena hosted a Creative Entrepreneurship Support Program that gave 20 creative entrepreneurs and 10 business support organizations hands-on training in business modeling, market research, digital branding, prototyping, and pitching. Delivered with support from StartupBlink and funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the program reflected GEN Chad's emphasis on widening access to entrepreneurship — including for women founders and communities affected by the region's climate pressures.

That emphasis has extended well beyond the capital. GEN's partners in Chad have carried digital-awareness and entrepreneurship programming into rural and nomadic communities, including a session at the 11th Nomadic Culture Festival in Mongo focused on the practical, responsible use of mobile and social tools among herders, farmers, and young people — a reflection of GEN's conviction that meaningful innovation must meet people where they are.

GEN's work in Chad is closely intertwined with national youth policy. In July 2020, Routouang, who had led GEN Chad's affiliate, was appointed Minister of Youth, Employment and Sports. During his tenure, which continued until early 2022, he established Chad's first fund dedicated to youth entrepreneurship, the Fonds National d'Appui à la Jeunesse (National Youth Support Fund). In 2020, amid the disruption of the global pandemic, the close ties between GEW organizers and government enabled the launch of the 235 Solutions Challenge, a hackathon-style initiative that mobilized local tech entrepreneurs to build digital responses to public-health and economic needs. Government engagement has continued since, with Fatime Boukar Kossie, the Minister Secretary of State for Youth and Entrepreneurship, among the Chadian officials connected to GEN's Startup Nations community, and recent GEW editions held under the patronage of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

GEN also connects Chad’s founders to its global programs. For example, GEN launched a robust Startup Huddle chapter in N'Djamena coordinated by Hamid Khayar of the Chad Innovation Hub. Startup Huddle is GEN's peer-driven monthly meetup program for early-stage founders and has become a cornerstone program in moving Chad toward self-employment and the digital economy. GEN has run the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) in Chad, a startup pitch competition it launched in 2019 offering free training, mentorship, and a share of US $1 million in annual prizes. MAKANAT-NAA reached the EWC Top 100 finalists in the competition's first year.

GEN maintains extensive relationships with key Chadian ecosystem stakeholders, including A2RTEL, the Chad Innovation Hub, the Chamber of Commerce of Chad, the National Investment and Export Agency, the NIRVANA Organization, RJDLT, WENAKLABS, and the Ministries of Youth and of Trade and Industry, alongside international partners including the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and StartupBlink. Chad is also connected to GEN's Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). GEN's mission in Chad is to build an inclusive ecosystem that reaches beyond N'Djamena, linking founders across the country with the training, networks, capital and markets they need to scale.