Ten years ago, after the Expo 2015 experience, I felt the need to carry forward my deep connection with Africa. Over dozens of visits, the continent impressed me with its striking contradictions: poverty and conflict on the one hand, energy and creativity on the other.
With the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the support of some entrepreneurs, the E4Impact Foundation was born, a bridge between Italy and Africa based on education, entrepreneurship and collaboration.
Today E4Impact is present in 20 African countries. We have trained over 2,000 entrepreneurs with the Global MBA in Impact Entrepreneurship, with extraordinary results: 35% women, 58% have started a new business, 29% have accessed funding.
On average, each enterprise that has emerged has created 13 jobs. We have promoted 45 development projects involving more than 40,000 micro-enterprises, often organised into business communities, and created the E4Impact Alliance, Africa’s largest university network dedicated to entrepreneurship.
Behind the numbers are faces and stories. Young people who have opened technology start-ups, women who have created social enterprises, farmers who have made their production sustainable.
Tangible experiences that demonstrate Africa is not merely a passive recipient of aid, but an active partner in building the future. This is why E4Impact today stands as a concrete best practice of the Mattei Plan for Africa.
For ten years we have been putting its pillars into practice: the centrality of education and entrepreneurship, cooperation between peers, and the development of sectors that unite Africa and Italy – from agribusiness to health, from education to renewable energy, from fashion to design. And we do this by promoting alliances between business and civil society, between the academic world and the industrial sector.
We are aware that the context remains difficult. In 2024 almost half of the world’s conflicts were concentrated in Africa; 67% of the world’s people below the poverty line live there; access to food, water, health and education is still a privilege for too many.
It is precisely in these scenarios that the Mattei Plan can and must make a difference, and we are ready to contribute.
Our 10-year anniversary is not a milestone to celebrate, but a starting point. We want to strengthen the MBA in 12 countries, create entrepreneurship centres in Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and Senegal, launch new business incubators and accelerators, and support more Italian SMEs in expanding into Africa, with the help of partners such as Simest and SACE.
We also work on innovative projects, from Circular Labour Migration — bringing skilled workers to Italy — to online courses for entrepreneurs, and support to African companies ready to grow nationally and internationally.
This decade has taught us that alone we can do little, but together we can do a lot. That is why we are inviting new companies, associations, institutions and civil society to join us.
The government’s Mattei Plan provides the framework. E4Impact, with its experience, can be a role model for how to turn good principles into concrete results.
The future of Africa and Italy is intertwined, and together we can build it. As an African proverb reminds us: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This is the lesson of these ten years of E4Impact, and it is the challenge we face with the Mattei Plan.
Letizia Moratti – E4Impact Foundation President