Nairobi hosts business boot camp linking entrepreneurs to investors in clean energy

Just days after the Africa Forward Summit brought French ministers, African heads of state and international investors to Nairobi, a quieter but equally consequential gathering took place in Westlands.

The Social and Inclusive Business Camp known as SIBC was founded in 2017 by the French Development Agency as an acceleration programme for entrepreneurs whose work creates measurable social or environmental impact. 

“We select them well after incubation when they have already proven that they have a market for the solution but are still a bit far from investment readiness,” said Philippe Baudez, one of the program coordinators. The four-month programme began with virtual modules and culminated in an in-person boot camp designed to close that gap. 

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, SIBC has supported more than 400 entrepreneurs across Africa. It initially started as a Pan African programme then shifted to specific regions.

The SIBC East Africa programme started in January 2026 in preparation for the Africa Forward Summit. Organizers decided to use the opportunity to turn the boot camp’s final week into a live networking training ground.

“The main challenge is access to finance and funding and so they got the chance to go to the business forum and to connect with investors,” said Emilie Pascal, the regional directorate of AFD in Nairobi.

This year’s edition brought together 48 entrepreneurs from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda. “All the entrepreneurs offer solutions related to energy transition, access to energy, clean cooking, e-mobility and agriculture,” said Pascal. 

Among the selected entrepreneurs was Filagot Tesfaye, the founder of On Energy Consult, a consultancy specializing in energy sustainability solutions.

Currently active in Ethiopia, the platform aims to build what its founder describes as a “core infrastructure system” for the clean energy workforce. 

“This programme is really helpful,” Tesfaye said. “First, it connects us to each other and through the Africa Forward Summit, it also connects us to investors from France and from within the ecosystem.” She added that the programme has given her a new perspective on how peers across the region are building businesses in complementary areas: solar technology, clean cooking and green finance. 

The SIBC is open to businesses that are at least three years old and registered on the African continent. Organizers have made women’s participation a priority reflecting the broader emphasis on gender equity.

“We have developed a feminist diplomacy and it is extremely important for us that in all of our training programmes there is a place that is given to women and their empowerment,” said the French Minister Delegate for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad, Éléonore Caroit. 

The SIBC gathering unfolded alongside a broader push to strengthen East Africa’s clean-energy ecosystem.

Later that day, at the University of Nairobi, French and Kenyan officials signed three major agreements geared towards investment in technical skills and education partnerships. 

At the centre of the announcements was a 35 million euro investment by the AFD to fund the new Engineering and Science Complex at UON’s Chiromo campus.

The project includes an Industrial Energy Chair bringing together UON and CentraleSupelec in Paris, with support from Kenyan energy companies and private-sector partners. 

While SIBC focuses on scaling established businesses, the UON partnership aims to nurture the technical talent behind East Africa’s energy transition.

“Kenya is moving towards first world status and we know very well that we cannot be able to do that unless we bring our youth to the centre of all this,” said Principal Secretary for science, research and innovation, Shaukat Abdulrazak. 

This focus on youth development was embodied by Anne Makhanu, a 2024 UON graduate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering who completed an exchange semester at CentraleSupélec, supported by a French Embassy scholarship. She now works as AI and Business Solutions Lead at TotalEnergies Kenya.

“The University of Nairobi is France's flagship university partner in Kenya,” said Minister Caroit. “Today’s agreements reflect our shared belief that science, innovation and academic exchange are the most durable foundations for bilateral cooperation.”

In a continent where the energy transition represents one of the defining economic opportunities of the next generation, those networks may prove as valuable as any single investment announced at the summit stage.