Under the auspices of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, and the Ministry of Finance, the ‘Yalla Sahel’ initiative, in collaboration with TikTok for Business and RiseUp, hosted a two-day event on 13 and 14 August. The event aims to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem, startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by enabling them to leverage the latest digital economy and platform marketing tools alongside senior officials, experts, and public and private sector representatives.
The first day’s activities, held on 13 August at the G Hotel in Sidi Abdel Rahman, were attended by Dr Mohamed Farid, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, and Dr Ahmed Rostom, Minister of Planning and Economic Development. Key leaders from the ‘Yalla Sahel’ initiative were also present, including Ayman Abbas, Chairman of Intro Holding; Abdallah Sallam, Managing Director and CEO of Madinet Masr; Ahmed Diab, Chairman of Liberty Development; and Seif El-Wazery, Chairman of United Media Services.
TikTok for Business was represented by Wael Ezzat, Head of Public Policy and Government Relations for North Africa at TikTok, while RiseUp was represented by Abdelhameed Sharara, Founder and CEO.
The first day featured a roundtable discussion bringing together ministers alongside leaders from ‘Yalla Sahel’, TikTok, and RiseUp to explore ways to support entrepreneurship and the digital economy. The schedule also included an opening session, specialised workshops on content creation, digital marketing, and TikTok for Business solutions, as well as panel discussions highlighting startup success stories and key opportunities within the digital economy.
The second day was dedicated to one-on-one advisory sessions with TikTok for Business experts. These sessions aimed to offer practical guidance to startup founders and SME owners on setting up ad accounts, creating marketing campaigns, adopting best practices, and using platform tools to scale their businesses and expand their digital footprint.
