Financing and supporting SMEs, the example of Vatel Madagascar

In Madagascar, tourism has become the cornerstone of development. Over the next 5 years, developing the country’s huge tourism potential will involve doubling the accommodation capacity, opening up Madagascar’s skies to the large airlines and improving training for managers and staff working in the tourism and hotel industries.

Vatel, a French group and world leader in hotel management training, opened a franchise in Madagascar in 2014 to meet these needs.

Vatel Madagascar today has several hundred students and graduates, who contribute to Madagascar’s tourism boom. Some have even set up their own business. Their paths show that they are very committed to contributing to the development of the Great Island and have a real entrepreneurial spirit. However, they are hampered by the lack of financing which start-ups and SMEs continue to face. Vatel Madagascar experienced the same financing difficulties until the investment by the impact fund Miarakap.

Thanks to Miarakap, Vatel today has the means to develop and improve its training provision. Investment funds like Miarakap provide a “customized” service with a detailed diagnostic of the business model, an equity investment and invaluable expertise in SME governance, management and development. Thanks to them, our dashboards are more structured, procedures are more formalized, our network of partners has expanded and our managerial capacity is stronger.
It is largely due to their involvement that the high-quality training provided by Vatel Madagascar will make a decisive contribution to the development of the island and its tourism.

Falihery Ramakavelo, Chief Executive Officer, Vatel Madagascar

Choose Africa, AFD Group’s SME initiative

The example of Vatel Madagascar illustrates the key role played by SMEs in improving access to training and employment. By launching the Choose Africa initiative, PROPARCO and its parent company AFD have given themselves the means – EUR 2.5bn by 2022 – to fully carry out their mandate for development in Africa. For example, Choose Africa allows us to offer bank guarantees and support investment funds such as Investisseurs & Partenaires and Miarakap in order to assist SMEs.

PROPARCO has been operating in Madagascar since 1992, where it has carried out over thirty operations in the island’s pillar industries: agriculture, the financial sector and infrastructure. PROPARCO’s portfolio currently stands at some EUR 80m.

Siby Diabira, PROPARCO’s Regional Director for Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean