2023: Startups, a dazzling evolution of a promising sector

These factors, encouraging young entrepreneurs to embark on an entrepreneurial adventure, sometimes even before obtaining their university diploma, have been thought out and judiciously orchestrated by a department created in 2020 by the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Since then, the Department of Knowledge Economy and Startups, which was merged with that of Micro-enterprises in September 2022, and promoted, on occasion, to the rank of a ministry in its own right, has continued to develop the startup ecosystem, thus reinforcing the prospective vision of its initiator.

And thanks to these measures, Algeria “is now in the middle of the continental ranking in the field of start-ups, after having been at the bottom of the African ranking in this area”, declared the President of the Republic, during his speech in the Nation recently delivered to members of both houses of Parliament, recalling that the public authorities have given particular interest to the creation of a national ecosystem for start-ups.

The “Sucess Story” of startups in Algeria is the result of strong and significant decisions adopted by the Government, under the supervision of President Tebboune, keen to ensure the success of this project to promote the knowledge economy.

Among the most important measures aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among young people and the financial inclusion of lucrative activities outside the official framework, the promulgation of the law on self-entrepreneurs, which grants entrepreneurs eligible for this status of tax advantages, with a preferential tax regime, at the rate of 5% reduced to 0.5% in the 2024 finance law, as well as social security coverage.

A status which will benefit, from the start of next year, from a national portal and a National Self-Employment Agency, allowing self-entrepreneurs to integrate the formal economy.

In addition to self-entrepreneurs, academics have been directly involved in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation, by establishing the university diploma-Startup and the university diploma-Patent of invention, or even the creation of the status of student-entrepreneur and the student-entrepreneur diploma, making it possible to bridge the gap between the student world and that of entrepreneurship.

== A model that inspires African countries ==

The President of the Republic welcomed, in this regard, the dynamics experienced by the higher education system, aimed at encouraging students to create their own startups, and ordered continued coordination at this level.

Instructions which resulted in the creation of 84 entrepreneurship development centers (CDE) throughout the national territory, and the provision of 1,200 offices to student-entrepreneurs as spaces to house the start-ups created by them.

The collaboration between the two ministries also led to the creation of the Scientific Council for Artificial Intelligence, made up of Algerian experts and researchers established inside and outside the country.

And for the financial support of these young entrepreneurs, the coverage of prototyping costs for the benefit of students carrying projects and the launch of work on the creation of three prototyping centers, but also the coverage of deposit costs of patents at national and international levels have been implemented.

In addition, the capital of the Algerian Startup Fund (ASF) was increased, and the Algerian Innovation Fund was created, in collaboration with foreign investment funds.

A successful model which inspired African countries on the occasion of the organization of the first two editions of the African Startup Conference (2022 and 2023) in Algeria, giving rise to the adoption of a roadmap for dynamisation of the startup ecosystem in Africa, as well as the adoption of the first Algiers declaration (2022) for the development of startups in the continent by the African Union.

Translated from APS