Nicolai, an NGO and a Project to Support African Entrepreneurship
Ideas in Motion is a non-profit organization founded in 2013 that aims to connect African entrepreneurs with students and young professionals worldwide with skills that can help in the kick-off of their business activity. Students or professionals collaborate for free for a maximum of six months. "The promotion of entrepreneurship has an economic and social impact on African countries: supporting companies in their initial phase will create workplaces in the long term", explains Nicolai Nieder. He is co-founder of the NGO and a German student in his last year Double Degree in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology at Bocconi University and the Catholic School of Business and Economics Lisbon.
Ideas in Motion allows entrepreneurs to find the human resources they need (and that they cannot afford) by uploading their business idea on an online platform. It also allows students or young professionals, "that we prefer to call experts rather than volunteers", points out Nicolai, to find an occasion to put their skills into practice. Skills that will be assimilated by entrepreneurs themselves during the collaboration and that will help them to strengthen their business in future. "During my studies I often felt the need to do something good, to help other people, but it seemed as though every volunteer program I came across required a substantial payment and, also, they hardly required any specific skills, but rather general and various tasks to be performed". That's how he decided to found this NGO (along with Gerwin Fels), that allows "experts" to get involved in an experience which is not just voluntary, but which is significant on a professional level, and without paying any commission besides travel and accommodation costs. "What characterizes us is transparency", he explains, "Thanks to our platform, entrepreneurs and experts meet each other virtually, and if they 'match' the expert comes to Africa and they start a collaboration on-site. This is important because you invest in people, before investing in impersonal projects".
The organization is now operating in Rwanda, "a safe and English-speaking country", and is currently supporting three business projects: one in the field of agriculture, one in that of renewable energy and the other in the area of e-commerce. "It is a good starting point for a journey that shouldn't stop in Rwanda but should go on to other countries around. There's so much work to do".