Four letters will soon disrupt the economic order in the French-speaking world. This is “FAOS”, an economic entity of the Groupement du patronat francophone (GPF), which aims to create economic synergy and a business platform. Among the three promoters of the project, the Senegalese Bara Ndiaye, founder of AMS, who shares with us his vision of the instrument intended to mark the French-speaking business space over the next 20 years.
How did this FAOS project mobilize you and what is Bara Ndiaye’s paw in this adventure?
This project particularly mobilized me, because it was a dream to create this economic space within the Francophonie. La Francophonie, it was Senghor, our former presidents, it was Aimé Césaire and many common values. FAOS is an economic entity of the GPF (Groupement du Patronat Francophone), creator of economic synergy, that is to say for the first time a space in competition with the Commonwealth has become a Francophone space and this space serves as a shared service, partnership, business therefore business. All the members of this ecosystem will be able to interact with each other, create an economy for the benefit of everyone, no longer in a political, diplomatic environment, we are in a business environment since the world is managed today. by the economy with common values.
My implication is that I am recognized in Africa as a platform mister who digitizes everything with all modesty and the fact of initiating this project there as a partner and actor with the president of the GPF who is Jean-Lou Blachier, with the entire FAOS team chaired by Aurélie Serel, we set out on this challenge, by involving the students of a large French school – the École Polytechnique de Paris that I had the honor to lead to get out of this project.
What is the vocation of FAOS in the end?
It’s not just a business space. We will also incubate African and Canadian start-ups from all over the French-speaking world, ie more than 88 countries and 30 million companies. We will gradually improve FAOS, to optimize it to be as inclusive as possible. We will soon have at the GPF level (it is in incubation) GPF projects as an investment space.
The objective is to create a zone of “free business” at the French-speaking level, how do you see the future compared to FAOS and above all will the results be there from the first year?
Yes indeed, FAOS is a vast economic exchange area. Now in our strategy, we are going to save entrepreneurs money in the first place. That is to say, we are going to create a multi-currency and multi-operating system platform. This will be accessible on all digital and mobile terminals. All entrepreneurs in this ecosystem are allowed to limit these trips, access the platform and engage in economic exchanges. So the Francophonie, it is 274 million interlocutors and this is not negligible, insofar as the GPF creates economic synergies. FAOS is a gateway to new markets. I recently came from Dakar by participating at an invitation from the Senegalese Employers’ Movement with an award ceremony, the equivalent of awards as an entrepreneur. I accompanied our president Jean Lou Blachier and our communications director. Why me, because FAOS must be put forward in Africa, Canada, Belgium, Vietnam and even Qatar, Mauritius are interested, so you see the scope of FAOS, which is a challenge for us all today. To conclude, we can consider FAOS, as a one-stop-shop for exchanges in Francophone and Francophile spaces
Let’s talk about your personal journey, Bara Ndiaye, since you created a technology company. What is your view on these past last months and on those to come?
I am still in the Council of large French companies. On the entrepreneurship side, I actually come from Senegal where I am revitalizing my business, I am relaunching what I had created although COVID has slowed us down. But what builds the mindset of an entrepreneur? it is perseverance, pugnacity, one of the values in which I believe, it is dynamism and motivation. So we are in full recovery. But we will achieve our goals, that’s for sure. So the crisis has been rich in terms of lessons, rich in terms of policy reflections and projections, so as an entrepreneur, one can only get up stronger.
You have created a lot of things with AMS, FAOS, what problem would you like to solve, with what solutions to bring?
I have an appetite for my chosen field, both FAOS and AMS. I am a shareholder in FAOS, which is the platform of the future, on which everyone will converge. With my associates, I have this ambition. The next objective is to participate massively and actively in the digitization of the entire public service of the African continent. We have the means, Africa has smartphones, Africa is digitalized today. There is wifi, connections, prepaid cards, terminals everywhere, we can do a lot of things with digitization, digitization. States have understood this issue. Students simply have to stop queuing in college and their registrations are 100% digitized. We have to have health systems with electronic health records and so many other areas … Indeed, I would not pretend to hoist myself in the name of some in this world. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. But they had dreams, they worked. They got there. I am Franco-Senegalese, I opt for the Francophonie, I opt for France, Senegal, Africa because it is my continent of heart and participating in the digitization and digitization of Africa would be an accomplishment major. And why not, we are going to create personalities, whom we will listen to, who will have expertise very far away, everything we need on site. This is my life mission.
We are halfway through the year, what are the prospects for the next 6 months?
The first goal that is almost achieved is the deployment, publication and release of the almost finalized platform. At the level of the French-speaking employers’ group, we are indeed having economic meetings that we are going to organize in Senegal, Ivory Coast, then in Qatar and in other countries. Then we will participate in the International Francophone Business Forum (FIEF) which will take place on November 9 and 10, 2021 in Dakar, with great personalities from the French Republic, the French-speaking world and various African countries and partners. During this Forum, we will focus on new features, which will be integrated into the FAOS platform with meetings and 2 days of round tables.
