Individuals are influenced by their immediate environment, this is well known. Omar Cissé is a perfect example. With a father and brothers who are entrepreneurs, going down the entrepreneurial path seemed obvious. "One day, I'll be a manager", is how the Senegalese answered when, as a young man, he was asked what he wanted to do later on. Since then, the man has come a long way. Omar has created many successful companies, including InTouch10 million in 2017, the largest fundraising ever for a start-up in French-speaking Africa. A fine strategist and excellent manager, zoom in on this Senegalese "local product" who shows that it is indeed possible to undertake in Africa and succeed there.
A pure product of the Senegalese school and certified trainer
The fine entrepreneur that the world knows today spent his entire school career in his native Senegal. In 1997, after obtaining his baccalaureate, Omar Cissé joined the Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique de Dakar (ESP, ENSUT at the time), a West African reference in the training of engineers in fields such as computer science, mechanics, electronics and civil engineering. He obtained his diploma in engineering design in computer science and new technologies in 2001, before completing his studies with an MBA in 2007 at the Institut Supérieur de Management (ISM) in the Senegalese capital. This local 100% background is undoubtedly an asset for Omar. Indeed, it allowed him to be well anchored in local realities, to experience real problems and to be able to solve them.
After this faultless course in Senegalese schools, Omar Cissé began his life as an entrepreneur and continued to train in parallel in order to position himself as a specialist in the fields that interest him. In this dynamic, the expert in business support and information and communication technologies is certified in business incubation by Infodev. This is a global partnership programme of the World Bank Group's Private Sector Finance and Development Network. The entity maintains a network of about 400 incubators in more than 100 countries, through which it supports young entrepreneurs and start-ups with coaching, workspace and, in most cases, seed financing.
Omar has worked for Infodev for 3 years as a business incubation trainer in several countries on the continent including Liberia, Rwanda, South Africa and Nigeria. His expertise as a coach is recognised and he also shines in his life as an entrepreneur.
A seasoned entrepreneur with a wealth of experience
During his engineering studies, Omar and a few friends landed contracts with local companies to develop websites. They carry out the contracts in their student rooms with only their laptops. They enjoy this activity and even manage to get higher salaries than engineers. With these opportunities and the influence of his family, it was clear to the young man that working for a company was not an option. The young engineer felt he had wings and took the plunge.
Barely a year after graduating from engineering school, Omar Cissé, the son of an entrepreneur, co-created 2SI, a software engineering and mobile solutions company in West Africa that he has been running since 2005. The company, founded in 2001, started in a room lent by the ESP, the school from which they had just graduated, and now has around 40 employees. Five years later, Cissé left the management of his first company. His departure was a bombshell for his partners, who saw it as an abandonment or even a betrayal. The young entrepreneur's mother did not understand it either, "you don't leave your family", she told him. There is general incomprehension. Omar, who feels he has reached the limit, sticks to his decision and leaves. The break-up is hard but he was convinced that he had something else to do elsewhere in the ecosystem. He is convinced that entrepreneurs need a mentor to discuss their issues. The idea for his next project is therefore quite obvious.
That same year, he founded CTIC Dakar, the first technology incubator in French-speaking West Africa. He remained at the head of the company for three years, during which time he used his experience to help entrepreneurs in the ICT sector. In a few years, CTIC Dakar has accompanied about a hundred entrepreneurs and has become a reference tool in Africa for business support. The company's experience is being duplicated in several African countries, including Niger and Mali, by partners who participated in its establishment, he says on his LinkedIn page. But Omar still wants more and has his sights set on another good avenue: mobile payments.
The project manager and mobile technology expert has indeed observed that in "Dakar alone, about 20,000 outlets offer money transfers, phone credits, mobile payment banking services." And unfortunately these solutions are not interoperable. So, in 2015, he launched Intouch, a fintech start-up specialising in payment aggregation solutions and digital services. Importantly, he started this platform that makes mobile payment solutions interoperable on his own funds and with only 4 engineers.
In 2016, convinced that the weakest link in the ecosystem is financing, with Olivier Furdelle and in partnership with Investisseurs et Partenaires, he co-founded the investment fund Teranga Capital, an investment vehicle dedicated to SMEs in Senegal. It is "positioned on the famous missing middle, those companies too big to benefit from microcredit but too small for the banks" he says. He stayed for two years before once again leaving the ship he co-constructed. What were the reasons? He wanted, among other things, to do things by himself... He could thus devote himself to 1000% at Intouch. And this has paid off, as the innovative company that has become a real success story is now growing at a rate of 40 to 50% and has no fewer than 400 employees. It is also present in 12 countries in Africa. The 45-year-old also distinguishes himself in other sectors such as poultry farming and multimedia, in which he is developing businesses. He also co-founded the Senegalese Association of ICT Enterprises.
Identifying problems and finding solutions is Omar Cissé's forte. Such strength and the family environment in which he grew up have undoubtedly made Omar a born entrepreneur. He is extremely resourceful and has a nose for business. He started out as an entrepreneur at a very early age and went on to build up a number of successful businesses, then moved into support structures, then into investment funds, and finally created Intouch, a major player in payment solutions. Having seen him work in fintech, agribusiness, financing etc., one wonders what sector the systems engineer will tackle next in the entrepreneurship link?
