ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP) 2026

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), through its Centre for Youthand Sports Development (CDJS/ECOWAS), is implementing the ECOWAS YouthandWomen's Entrepreneurship Programme (EYWEP) with the technical and financial support of AUDA-NEPAD.

As part of this programme, ECOWAS is deploying the ECOWAS Regional BusinessIncubation Programme (EBIP) as an operational mechanism for identifying, incubatingandsupporting young people with high-potential business ideas. The EBIP programme responds to an important need in the community space: manyyoungpeople have innovative ideas, promising projects or prototypes, but do not have the technical capacity, support or tools to transform these ideas into formal, viable and sustainablebusinesses.

It is with this in mind that ECOWAS is launching this call for projects, in order toidentifyand select young business idea holders in the following seven pilot countries:

• Benin 
• Ivory Coast
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea-Bissau
•  Senegal
• Sierra Leone

The purpose of this call for projects is to select potential young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35with business ideas, innovative concepts or advanced prototypes, in order to support theminastructured incubation process.

The objective is to enable beneficiaries to:

• transform a business idea into a structured project;
• refining their business model;
• strengthen their entrepreneurial and managerial capacities; 
• benefit from technical coaching and mentoring;
• prepare the legal creation of their company; 
• facilitate the transition from the idea to the formally

• Table of Content
• About Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
• ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)
• Aim and Benefits of ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)
• Requirements for ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP) Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)
• Documents Required for Application
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as (CEDEAO in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of 5,114,162 km2 (1,974,589 sq mi), and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its me...... continue reading

ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)

Aim and Benefits of ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)

The selected young people will benefit in particular: 

• a structured incubation programme; 
• specialized training; 
• personalised technical support;
• mentoring by experts and practitioners;
• support for the legal formalization of their business;
• supervision in the development of the economic model and business plan;
• networking with partners and support institutions; 
• increased visibility within the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Requirements for ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP) Qualification

This call is open exclusively: 

• young people aged 18 to 35;
• nationals or residents of one of the seven pilot countries; 
• innovative business idea holders; 
• young people with a concept, a prototype, a product in development or an entrepreneurial project in the maturation phase.

The EBIP program does not primarily target already established companies, but ratheryoung people who wish to legally create their business and need support to move fromideatoformalization.

Eligible Domains

Projects must fall within one of the following priority areas:

• pharmaceutical industry;
• information and communication technologies (ICT);
• solar energy and renewable energy;
• agrosilvopastoral activities and agricultural value chains.

Interview date, Process and Venue for ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP)

Program Format

As part of this pilot phase, the programme will concern:

12 young people per country in 7 pilot countries a total of 84 young beneficiaries

Participation in the program is free of charge. 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

The program aims to support young people from the business idea to the legal creationand structuring of their business.

Documents Required for Application

The application must include:

• an up-to-date Curriculum Vitae (CV);
• a copy of a valid identity document;
• a concept note presenting the business idea or project;
• a description of the problem identified, the proposed solution and the target market; 
• any additional document allowing the potential of the project to be assessed;
• if available, a prototype, a mock-up, images, schematics or proofs of concept.

All documents must be consolidated into a single PDF file.

Check also:
Commonwealth Master's Scholarship to Study in UK 2027/2028
Mandela Washington Fellowship for Africans 2027 (Fully Funded to USA)

Application Deadline

How to Apply

Complete applications must be sent to the email address corresponding to the candidate'scountry.

Subject of the email: "Application for the EYWEP/EBIP Incubation Program2026"

Country:  Email address

Benin: [email protected]

Ivory Coast: [email protected]

Gambia: [email protected]

Ghana: [email protected]

Guinea-Bissau: [email protected]

Senegal: [email protected]

Sierra Leone: [email protected]

For any further information, candidates can contact: [email protected]

For more Information, visit ECOWAS Regional Business Incubation Programme (EBIP) webpage