PS Susan Mangeni Champions Green Innovation and Inclusive Enterprise at Conecta Africa Launch
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By John Kariuki
Nairobi, Kenya – Kenya is doubling down on its commitment to inclusive economic empowerment and sustainable enterprise development, as emphasized by Principal Secretary for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development, Susan Auma Mangeni, during the official launch of the Conecta Africa Initiative at Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club.
Conceived as a transformative pan-African endeavor, Conecta Africa is co-led by Bridge for Billions, with strategic backing from The Coca-Cola Foundation, IDRC, Grundfos Foundation, and Strathmore University. The initiative aims to strengthen early-stage entrepreneurial ecosystems in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa, with a sharp focus on youth and women-led enterprises.
PS Mangeni championed a bold shift towards green innovation, scalable enterprise solutions, and ecosystem-driven growth—critical pillars for the future of Africa’s MSME sector. She called on corporates and development stakeholders to move beyond one-off projects and work towards robust, long-term systems that provide access to capital, markets, and technical expertise.
Over 100 high-level stakeholders—including government officials, development partners, private sector leaders, academics, and ecosystem enablers—attended the launch. Their presence underscored a collective commitment to catalyzing economic transformation through entrepreneurship.
Lauding Conecta Africa as more than just a program, PS Mangeni positioned it as a continent-wide movement aligned with Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. She described it as a timely and strategic intervention designed to strengthen resilience, foster innovation, and unlock cross-border opportunities for emerging entrepreneurs.
PS Mangeni also announced that the next phase of the Hustler Fund will focus on scaling promising enterprises. This expanded rollout will offer enhanced credit facilities, sector-specific interventions, structured mentorship, and direct integration into global value chains.
She affirmed that Kenya’s approach is to cultivate an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is inclusive, adaptive, and globally competitive—one that promotes simplified business registration, climate-smart innovation, and enterprise resilience.
“Kenya is honored to host the launch of Conecta Africa,” said PS Mangeni. “This initiative embodies our collective aspiration to empower a generation of African entrepreneurs to build boldly, innovate sustainably, and scale globally.”
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