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Turning Setbacks into Success and Sustainability

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For months, the world has followed the unrest and protest in North Africa stemming from unemployment throughout Tunisia and Egypt. America.gov asked several Tunisian entrepreneurs to share their stories of business development amid the strife in their region.

Headshot of Ziad Oueslati

Ziad Oueslati

Mr. Ziad Oueslati has studied at MINES ParisTech in France and at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America. He is a Founding Partner and CEO of TunInvest-AfricInvest Group.

Upon completing engineering studies in France and the US, I decided to return to Tunisia to contribute to its development and that of Africa. After a few years with an international bank, I created with two partners the first private equity boutique in North Africa. We shared the same drive to help indigenous entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises to emerge, grow and excel. In time, we managed to expand our activities to a wide number of countries across the African continent, offering financing, coaching and strategic guidance to nearly 100 entrepreneurs and SMEs.

We learned during that period that the main ingredients for building successful and sustainable businesses in Africa – particularly in Tunisia – are transparency, ethics, interest alignment, market viability and strategic vision. We endeavored to reinforce management with the right people, properly incentivize them, seek larger markets through export strategies, promote social and environmental responsibility, and enhance corporate governance at all levels. This also meant avoiding partnering with politically exposed persons, no matter how enticing the opportunity or intense the pressure. That was particularly difficult in Tunisia over the last 10 years, given the rampant corruption of the family of the ex-Tunisian dictator.

This course has spared us from major setbacks after the regime change. Although we foresee difficulties in the short term, we are confident that the cleaner economic environment will restore investors’ confidence and boost private investment and entrepreneurship.

Tunisian entrepreneurs should invest in people and training and seek smart foreign partnerships that bring true added value and technology transfer. To be sustainable over the long term, they should also dare to go outside their borders to neighboring markets and beyond.


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