NURTURING
the talent of budding entrepreneurs

WITH a large and growing youth population, agencies such as ANSEJ have a vital role to play in creating employment

With more than two-thirds of the population below the age of 30, Algeria has a serious challenge to find gainful employment for its young people – a situation that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
As the state sector is contracting, the main impetus has to come from private enterprise. But an interesting governmental scheme that is in its fifth year of operation is giving a helping hand.
This is the National Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment, or ANSEJ, which is supervised directly by the Prime Minister’s office. Since its inauguration, ANSEJ has supported more than 40,000 projects, resulting in the creation of almost 200,000 jobs. The core element of the program is to help young people help themselves, by facilitating the creation of micro-businesses through assistance with funding, training and advice.

In a minority of cases, the young business-people – 17 percent of whom were women in 2001 – are able to raise sufficient capital themselves. What they need is the know-how about getting a business off the ground.
More common is a form of co-financing, in which the budding entrepreneur’s financial participation might be minuscule. Sometimes ANSEJ comes up with funds, loaned at a zero rate of interest, but more often it acts as a kind of intermediary with the banks, by recommending proposals that it has studied closely.
“Youngsters have set up a wide variety of going concerns, in services, agriculture, information and new technologies,” says ANSEJ’s General Manager, Abdelghani Mebarek. “This tells you that there is a tremendous potential among young people who have the will to launch themselves into a real adventure.”

There is around a 60 percent success rate for the micro-businesses thus created, which is considered a sound achievement. Some have gone on to become much bigger operations, capturing an important share of the domestic market. Others have established partnerships with companies or suppliers abroad, for example in such areas as the manufacture of surgical gloves and other specialized products.
“The important thing is that ANSEJ sees things through with the young people,” says Mr. Mebarek. “It’s not so much helping them get started as following through what happens next. The day that I see that they are on the right path and are expanding, then I know that our mission has been completed.”

An essential part of the process is drawing up a workable business plan, which ANSEJ’s specialist personnel do in tandem with the young applicant. Once that has been satisfactorily completed, the project gets a certificate of approval from ANSEJ, which makes banks far more willing to consider loans.
Mr. Mebarek doesn’t just wait for people to approach ANSEJ. “I go to them,” he says. “I go to see them while they are still studying, so when they finish their courses they don’t just find themselves unemployed.”