Through our work in Mozambique to encourage the development of enterprise, we help small and medium businesses be more competitive and offer better products and services. Through Eni Rovuma Basin we signed a collaboration agreement with Standard Bank’s business incubator and between May 2019 and August 2020 we implemented a business immersion programme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mozambique. The project, through a series of events and training sessions put on in the city of Maputo and virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic, began with the aim of helping companies validate their business models, thus contributing to their sustainability and growth. The initiative, called #Ideate bootcamp, saw over 100 SME representatives take part in its first phase. It is part of an Enterprise Development Programme implemented to strengthen the competitiveness of local businesses and promote potential business opportunities throughout the value chain of sectors other than O&G. At the #Ideate boot camp participants had the chance to learn and use methodologies for effectively evaluating, improving, designing and getting across their business models, easing them into their market. Something that is encouraged in the seminars is exchanging experiences, sharing ideas and creating synergy between companies, so they are pushed to join forces and grasp all the opportunities the market offers.
In 2021, in line with international standards, Eni strengthened the integration of the gender perspective in the project cycle, ensuring its adoption in the technical assessment (pre-approval) phase.