ALGIERS, Algeria, May 19. Algeria is actively reforming its strategy for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by prioritizing digital solutions and innovation, said Noureddine Ouadah, Algerian Minister of Knowledge Economy, Startups, and Microenterprises, Trend reports.
Speaking at the panel discussion titled “Digital Solutions for Empowering MSMEs and Fostering Socio-Economic Development” as part of the Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Algiers, Ouadah noted that for decades Algeria had invested billions of dollars in SME development, but by 2020, it became clear that a significant portion of these businesses were excluded from the digital economy.
“And then, at the same time, when we had a look at the founders, there were really fewer than 20 percent of the founders coming from the university. This required us to rethink our approach.
Starting from this, in 2020, Algeria launched a ministry dedicated to startups and the digital economy. And the launch of this ministry was to complete what was done before for classical SMEs.
If you want to enable SMEs in the digital area, you have to be digital yourself. The government has to be digital. And this is what we did in Algeria,” he noted.
Ouadah stated that since the ministry's inception, all internal processes and communication with startups have been conducted entirely in digital format—without paperwork or physical applications.
"Algeria is more than 2 million square kilometers. So, reaching all people all over the country without digital is really complicated. So, this is the first motivation.
The minister also highlighted that youth, the main target group for the startup ecosystem, are already highly engaged with digital technologies:
“If I take maybe some numbers today in Algeria, we have more 4G phones than the population itself. So, digital tools are widely used, especially by the youth category,” he said.
And then, we launched in October 2020, the Algerian startup firm, who is also a digital firm. And then, an equity-based firm, which fits better when we are talking about SMEs, when we are talking about startups, when we are talking about companies dealing with innovation, with uncertain business model, with new technology.
So, once again, the legal framework was digital, the funding process was digital, and then after, all the other incentives, facilities, mechanisms have to be digital in order to fit with this young population," Ouadah concluded.
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