“A well-supported SME can become a powerful economic engine for an entire country.“

– Patricia Zoundi YAO

Ms. Patricia Zoundi YAO (President of the Movement of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – MSME)

A vision, a struggle, a renaissance for Ivorian SMEs

As head of the Ivorian Movement of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME), Ms. Patricia Zoundi Yao embodies both strategic rigor and a passion for the field. Long committed to promoting entrepreneurship in Côte d’Ivoire, she granted an exclusive in-depth interview to the editorial team of “SAIGLOIN-AFRICA” in which she reflects on her inspiring career, her organization’s key initiatives, and her vision for the future of Ivorian SMEs. “A well-supported SME can become a powerful economic engine for an entire country” she asserts with conviction.

You studied law. Why didn’t you pursue a legal career?

I admit that I may have gone into law school just like that, without any real enthusiasm, because my dream when I was young was to become a nun. When people asked me, “What do you want to do later?” I always replied that I wanted to be a nun. Because I spent time with nuns at my school. I attended a Catholic school run by the Sisters in Soubré, and I was very close to those nuns. So I admired their work because I saw them treating people at the clinic. They had a dispensary where they provided care to everyone.

And so I was very close to two nuns called Sister Marthe and Sister Marie Yvonne. I was close to those two nuns and followed them everywhere. With them, I did the prison service because they went to the prisons to visit the prisoners. And that’s when I said to myself, I like what they do, so I’m going to be a nun.

When I reached my final year of high school, I started asking myself the right questions. I admit that I ultimately wanted to go to the National Polytechnic Institute (INP). I was a little tempted by the INP, but I had a literary baccalaureate.

To get into agricultural school, you had to have a scientific baccalaureate. I still tried the competitive exam for the ESCA (Higher School of Commerce and Business), but it didn’t work out. And then, finally, an older brother, a friend, asked me to try law, because it opens doors.

That’s how I enrolled in law school, and I admit I haven’t regretted it because I believe law is a field that offers many opportunities.

Except that when I finished, I knew I wanted to do everything except wear the lawyer’s gown, the black robe. I tried to see if I could pursue a Higher Specialization Diploma (DSS) in banking law. I wanted to go to Dakar, to the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD).

And then, something came back to me because I was with my mother, who was a shopkeeper. During the school year, my mother came to my school to sell, and so during recess, I helped her sell. During the holidays, I did business with my mother. I accompanied her to sell in the villages of Soubré, including Yabahio, Okrouhio, Méagui, etc. (they were villages at the time).

I started to enjoy business because I was making money. After the sale, my mother would give me commissions. I enjoyed the interaction, I enjoyed selling.

Isn’t that where the taste for entrepreneurship came from?

I think so. But except that at the time, entrepreneurship didn’t mean anything. We thought entrepreneurs were businesspeople. We were referring to the people who managed construction sites.

Since I was very bright at school, I didn’t know how to tell my father, especially since he had invested a lot of money in my education, that I wanted to be a businesswoman, whereas for him, I should pursue a career in law. Our eldest was supposed to be a doctor, the second an agronomist. I wanted to sell. When I say sell, I really mean sell in the villages. But how could I convince him? It was a bit difficult.

How did you manage to convince him?

I think it was perhaps because of my seriousness. I was so serious that he saw that I put my heart into it. And then, he saw that I was making an effort, that I was earning a little money. But for him, it was still something precarious, because a job in an administration or a company is much more secure. But I think he wasn’t so wrong because at the time, an entrepreneur’s career wasn’t stable.

Finally, over time, he saw that I was passionate, that I was serious about what I was doing. He ended up giving me his blessing. I think that before he made his decision, he was very proud of me. I remember when I won the National Award for Excellence for Young Entrepreneurs and I told him the news, I admit that I saw something emerge on my father’s face that I had never seen before.

Before all that, I sold books on the floor and managed small business booths. When I was in law school, I was a salesperson on campus. I did a little bit of everything. At least, in life, I didn’t have any hardship, since I always had a little money.

Patricia Zoundi Yao, current president of MSME: commitment and determination in the service of small and medium-sized enterprises in Côte d’Ivoire.

You are now the President of MSME. What were the main steps that led you to this position?

I became acquainted with the association around 2009, but it was a period of crisis within it because things were tense between the various leaders there.

I told myself that if I’m an entrepreneur, I still need to connect with an association where I can get help. That’s how I got there. And then I became a member and started to be much more active.

Afterwards, I held the position of committee president. I was really very active. I attended all the meetings, all the training sessions. And then in 2018, I was appointed vice-president of the MSME. But I admit that I really made the decision to take this step following an observation.

Which one?

When I attended the Stanford University program in Accra, I saw that there were many opportunities to support entrepreneurs. Except that these entities can’t come directly to support SMEs. They need to go through organizations that are part of an association, a bit like an umbrella organization. And I saw that in East African countries, a lot of funding was being injected into capacity building.

And when I looked at what was being done here, I found it wasn’t enough. Then I realized that there were governance issues beyond all that.

And then, I admit that some members pushed me, especially my current vice-president, who told me that I should take the reins of the Movement. I told him that I wasn’t interested because I had a lot to do. He was convinced that with my contacts, I could lead the MSME. That’s when I thought why not?

What was the trigger for you to finally accept?

After him, there was another person who encouraged me to make the decision. Ultimately, I told myself that since I’ve always been lucky in my life, since I’ve benefited from a program, I have networks, and I have the necessary contacts for the personal development of my business, why should I shut myself away?

So I told myself that if I can contribute something to building the Movement, I must agree to go for it. Especially since there was a language I didn’t like. Every time I heard people talk about SMEs, they were presented as thugs, they were said to be unscrupulous, unstructured, and unpaying their dues.

Yet, I see men and women, leaders of SMEs, who, every morning, get up to face all the challenges, trying to keep the economy beating, brick by brick. So I told myself that there must be a dialogue of the deaf. Because, on the one hand, there is the reality of these men and women who, every morning, get up to go to work, try to generate revenue at the end of the month, pay their bills, pay their taxes because entrepreneurship is not a peaceful world, and on the other hand, there are people who have a somewhat mistaken idea that these men and women have nothing to do.

That’s when I told myself that we must try to restore this image. That’s what interested me: how to restore the image of SMEs, correct the erroneous perception that some have of SMEs.

Of course, I’m not saying there aren’t problems. There are problems everywhere. But we have to promote what can be promoted. So I told myself, let’s take the reins, we’ll try to do what we can, we’ll try to make things happen.

Especially when I read the history of the MSME, I saw that the association had 2,000 members, I think in the years 1999-2000. It was a wonderful association with real estate assets, a significant association, which held its ceremonies at the Hôtel Ivoire. And then I saw an association that shrank from 2,000 to 41 members.

I said to myself, rather than criticize, why not try, ourselves, to do what we need to do? I then decided to no longer remain passive. So I decided to lead the Movement to bring about the necessary change.

Aside from academic definitions, what does entrepreneurship mean to you?

There’s a definition I like, one I discovered at Stanford. At Stanford, we say an entrepreneur, or in entrepreneurship, is someone who seeks to solve a societal problem by developing a good, a service, or a product. But since this product meets someone’s need, that person will be willing to dig into their pocket to buy it. And when that person buys it, of course, money will come in, and you have to know how to redistribute that money.

So it’s wealth; it will create wealth. This wealth must be shared. Of course, the entrepreneur himself will take a portion, but it’s also about being able to distribute that wealth to everyone: the employees he works with, his colleagues, the community, the government, and so on.

For me, there must first be a desire to solve a problem, and behind that desire must be a service, a good, or a product. But we don’t stop there because we’re not an NGO.

In short, there must be an economic model that meets the needs of someone’s life who, when they see the service or product, is led to pay. All of this will create wealth. It is this wealth that will be shared among all parties.

What definition do you give of an SME?

For me, it is the main engine of the economy. Based on the french acronym “PME”, I say P (for main), M (for engine) E (for economy). So for me, SME (PME in french) means Main Engine of the Economy. And when we look at our economic fabric and when we see that there are 98% of SMEs that run the Ivorian economy, for me, it is the main driver of the economy.

What values guide your commitment to SMEs in Côte d’Ivoire?

First, I want to say that there’s passion. I love what I do. I don’t fight every battle, I fight battles that I’m passionate about, so even when it’s difficult, there’s passion in everything I do because I love what I do, I love SMEs, I love my members, I love people. There’s love for people, in fact.

Then, there is everything that is integrity for me and it is really one of the big values that my parents passed on to me: integrity. Then, there is the love of work. My father always says that there is no secret: “If you work, you will get results. If you don’t work, you won’t get results.” For me, there is passion, integrity and the love of work, a job well done, above all, that is what guides me every day.

You’ve certainly faced challenges as a female entrepreneur.

Yes, of course! I’ve faced several challenges because when you go from an informal business like the one I ran with my mother to a formal company without much support, it’s complicated. The transition isn’t easy.

I remember that, even though I studied law, I found myself one day with tax documents to pay. I was doing my job, selling a few small things. Secondly, at the time I was selling, there wasn’t much training or awareness about entrepreneurship. I admit that my real training in entrepreneurship came in 2014 with the program I mentioned earlier. It’s true that I did things like that, but I actually understood the process. The training taught me to structure what I was doing in a fairly small way; it wasn’t structured.

When you discover what it’s like, you now learn how to structure your business. The biggest challenge was really this one: transitioning from the informal to the formal side without any support. Today, there’s a lot of support everywhere.

After that, there are many challenges, but they’re common business challenges. Financing is a little less of a challenge now, but building your team, leadership, and managing a team. When I was in the informal sector, it wasn’t the same. With training, I’m more or less trying to offset that burden.

How does your legal training help you in the work you do today?

Ah, it helps me a lot! Because in every way, it helps me on every level. I took a course when I was in law school called political economy. For me, law was limited to articles that had to be learned by heart. But I learned about this course; it was a curiosity for me.

It was a fairly comprehensive course that allows me today to understand the business environment as an entrepreneur. Because when you finish, you should know what economic and political factors you need to consider in your environment. It really helps me.

In the context of MSME, it helped me understand the regulatory framework of the Movement. In political economy, we learned about taxation, which allows you to understand the world of taxes as an entrepreneur. This allows you to optimize your approach to taxation. For me, it was truly a comprehensive training program.

Afterwards, I studied business law, a law much closer to business. It’s true that I’m no longer a legal specialist. But at least I’m able to challenge and speak with all stakeholders, whether they’re lawyers, my legal advisor, or my tax advisor.

What advice would you give to young Ivorian entrepreneurs, and especially women?

Ah! I think first of all, you have to know how to choose. You shouldn’t enter entrepreneurship as a fad, because it’s not a peaceful world. There are times when you want to play, you want to sing, you’re happy. There’s a time when you ask yourself, “Who sent me here?” And you wonder if you made the right choice.

I went through that phase, but I asked myself the right questions. I asked myself, “But wasn’t what my father had said the best choice after all? Did I have to go and work to become an employee? These are times when you ask yourself all these questions.

Then, one aspect that should never be neglected is training. Because we get the impression that we can enter entrepreneurship just like that. That’s what I thought, but I don’t think it’s true. We train like a doctor. Because we’re not going to start working on the human body and cutting people up, operating on them like that. I mean, training yourself daily in this profession will allow you to be more efficient. And then you breathe better.

Today, I breathe better because I understood that with this training, you had to surround yourself with a team. But when you’re alone, you carry a whole weight; it’s difficult. But when you know how to surround yourself, when you have a team that understands the vision, that knows where you’re going, you divide that burden and each person takes a part, and ultimately, it’s less of a burden for you to carry alone.
 

The visual of the MSME, a reference organization.

Can you tell us about the Ivory Coast SME Movement and its main missions?

The MPME is a wonderful association created in 1980 by seven entrepreneurs, including Daniel Bréchat. However, the idea first emerged in 1976 with a Frenchman named Michel Pava, who thought of establishing an association. But it was in 1980 that seven people established the MPME, along with Daniel Bréchat, who is its founding president.

To date, it has been in existence for 45 years. We were able to honor him on July 2 and 3, 2025, as I had hoped. It was an opportunity for us to look back on the association’s history and its achievements. So they started. There were seven of them, but according to the archives I’ve read, they wanted to get access to insurance by joining forces, to get together just to settle insurance policies.

They even carried out very important projects at the time, which were guarantee projects. They had set up a fund that allowed member SMEs to access credit without necessarily posting a bank guarantee. The guarantee fund they had set up fulfilled this role. They had created a kind of mutualization to be able to benefit from more attractive premiums. That is to say, they all joined forces to go to the same insurer.

And then, very quickly, there was a craze. From seven, they grew to 50, then to 500. The small group became a mutual insurance company, and it was only in 1990 that it truly took on the name of a movement. This movement had up to 2,000 members, and it was a bit like a union, defending the interests of SMEs and looking at how to support them.

This allowed for group purchasing. It was a real network of working with each other. Everyone was a customer of each other. And they were truly the main point of contact at the government level for everything related to SMEs.

They even created a magazine. I discovered a page from a magazine in the archives where they shared their points of view and their orientations on major issues affecting the economic environment. The government consulted them constantly.

After Daniel Bréchat, there was Nicolas, who was also president, and Ms. Lawson. Then there was Mr. Amichia Joseph, and I arrived as the 7th president of the MSME.

The president of the MSMEs with Souleymane DIARRASSOUBA, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Promotion of SMEs.

What are the main actions taken by the MPME to support Ivorian SMEs?

We wanted to evolve along four axes. The first axis concerns governance. It involves working on the governance of the organization and our SMEs. When we arrived, we undertook several projects, which included revamping our regulations to bring them much more in line with international standards. That’s what we did.

The second axis concerns strengthening the competitiveness and capacity of our members. That’s why we conduct a lot of training. Every Thursday, training sessions are provided for our members and their teams. This aims to help them increase their capacity and also their competitiveness.

Because today, we live in a global village, and with the tariff barriers that will be lifted with the common market on the horizon, this represents both an opportunity and a danger. An opportunity when you’re prepared, a danger when you’re not.

This means that an SME will leave Tanzania and come and sell on the Ivorian market. Consumers will look for the product that offers the best value for them in terms of quality and cost. In East Africa, countries already have a fairly advanced level of industrialization at the SME level, which is not yet the case for us.

So the idea for us is to become more competitive. So that when this market opens up—it’s already opening up—we can not only dominate our market and then go on to conquer it internationally.

That’s why we do a lot of networking for our members and why we travel a lot. We’ve already traveled to China several times, and other trips are in the works to see how our SMEs can compete with others internationally. It’s about acquiring the technology to be competitive in the markets.

We’re also active in everything related to “local content.” We’re looking to better prepare our SMEs. That is, when there’s a sector that’s changing, such as the oil or energy sector, for example, we try to provide information to our SMEs so they can prepare to seize emerging opportunities, take them into account, and take advantage of the local content law.

So this is the context in which you initiated the Master Classes?

Yes, that’s exactly it, it’s the training, we go in all directions. We even have a Master Class on the mental health of business leaders. I remember that when I was talking about this topic, someone thought it only concerned crazy people. Yet, for business leaders, it’s an emotional burden!