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INTERVIEW

Bridie Laplace (SK 2007), supporting companies with her African expertise

03 October 2019 INTERVIEW

An expert in private sector development and female entrepreneurship, Bridie Laplace (SK 2007) has been working as a consultant for the last seven years, assisting companies investing in English-speaking Africa. According to Bridie, this is a zone that combines economic dynamism and quality of life, like Kenya where she resides.

Your background reveals a certain attraction to Sub-Saharan Africa: how do you explain this?

I’m French-Congolese and lived in different African countries when I was young, right up to my high school diploma. I then headed to France to further my studies. At SKEMA, I majored in corporate finance and also took an interest in microfinance. At the time, the subject was in vogue due to the Nobel Prize being awarded to Muhammad Yunus, the “banker to the poor” and Grameen Bank founder, in 2006. I wrote a dissertation on this topic and had the opportunity to interview a number of players in the sector. One of these, Investisseurs et Partenaires, offered me an internship. I was then offered an International Volunteering contract at Proparco ─ the subsidiary of the French Agency for Development (AFD) focusing on the private sector ─ in Nairobi and that was the beginning of my great professional adventure in Africa!

Today you’re an investment and financing consultant and you’re providing support to companies. How do you choose your work assignments?

Over the years, I have specialised in resource mobilisation via investments and partnerships. The companies I work with share the desire to expand in Africa. I therefore offer them my expertise to help them understand highly varied business climates. I have a real fondness for English-speaking Africa, which is very dynamic from the point of view of technology and social innovations. I have a very rich professional life there. On a personal level, Nairobi, where I live, is a very cosmopolitan and welcoming city that offers a certain level of material comfort and many possibilities for surrounding yourself with nature.

Is being bicultural an asset for you?

Having knowledge of African cultures and markets is rather an advantage, yes. As for my French heritage, that depends on the context. In English-speaking Africa, for example, France is rather well regarded, and that is not always the case in the French-speaking part of the continent, where you sometimes see negative reactions due to the colonial past. Generally speaking, when you’re a French woman, you have to both prove your competence and win over certain partners to be accepted as an authority.

You’ve done a lot of work for female entrepreneurship in Africa: what are the obstacles and levers?

Whether at Dalberg, where I was in charge of setting up an investment fund for women, or at the UN Women agency, where I worked on developing climate-resilient agriculture, I discovered the crucial issue of soft skills. To develop female entrepreneurship, on top of giving access to financing, it is important to work on more emotional aspects such as self-confidence and leadership. This work can take the form of training courses or of assisting women’s support networks.

You’ve worked for so many years in entrepreneurship, haven’t you ever wanted to start your own business?

Yes, having completed my textile designer training, I’m now setting up my own interior decoration business, where the accent is on traditional and contemporary African fabrics. The idea is to make it a social business that promotes local crafts and employs women at all levels of the value chain.

 

 Bridie Laplace (SK 2007)

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