ESTEL, a leading business school located in Dakar and UNITED’s educational partner, collaborated with Impact Dakar to host and produce the MIT Open Mic Dakar, a conference that brought together different stakeholders of Senegal’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems including entrepreneurs, financial institutions, educators and impact investors. The event was part of MIT’s Open Mic Africa series, a Pan-African event that took place in Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal. The Open Mic Africa series enabled MIT to increase awareness around its Zambezi Prize for Innovation in Financial Inclusion.
The event was sponsored by the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship which selected ESTEL and Impact Dakar as the official event hosts. As an ecosystem builder, UNITED supported ESTEL through additional in-kind sponsorship, network amplification and media partnerships.
Speakers included Mr. Tayib Fall, former Manager at Google Africa and Head of Innovation at Universite Gaston Berger; Mr. Yann Le Beux, Catalyst at CTIC Dakar and co-founder of YUX Dakar; Ms. Aicha Agne Pouye, former Minister of Small Business of Senegal; Ms. Soukeyna Ndiaye Ba, former Minister of Senegal and leading financial inclusion expert; Mr. Ousmane Diagne, VP at Citibank; Mr. Mouhamed Diouf, Head of Gainde2000 Incubator; and Mr. Aziz Sy, Manager of Impact Dakar.
