Social entrepreneurship trend
Meet Ismail Chaib, a young and successful entrepreneur
“I think social entrepreneurship is the future of humanity and the most effective way to change the world”.
For Ismail Chaib, a young and talented entrepreneur originally from Algeria, “the trend of social entrepreneurship will be increasingly important. Companies are trying to see opportunities in such markets because the traditional business is starting to think about its social responsibility. Young people and technologies are also key to change the world ”. Chaib, who is 24, is also a technology expert and enthusiast: in 2010 he co-founded in Algeria SMS Bridge (in 2010), a tech start-up that was awarded at the Algerian Startup initiative and selected as one of the top 100 Mediterranean startups.
At present he is working in Berlin at Tesobe, an IT consultancy, where he is Project Manager for the Open Bank project, a social entrepreneurship project aimed at financial transparency.
Ismail Chaib is a frequent speaker at many international events, such as TEDxAlger, Algeria and Open World Forum, France. He was also one of the speakers at this year’s edition of TransEuropaExpress, Italy, a European cultural workshop, that focused on the best ideas and projects of young entrepreneurs.
What are your impressions regarding TransEuropa Express?
It was very interesting, especially concerning social entrepreneurship. All the speakers at the workshop, who were very young and talented entrepreneurs, were either involved in social entrepreneurship or they were very socially minded and forward thinking. TransEuropa gave a very important message: in Europe, even if you are young, you can make it. I was very energized, listening to all these stories.
What is your main focus ?
The Open Bank project, a social entrepreneurship project we are running now at Tesobe. It is a European initiative to open up financial transactions in order to achieve financial transparency and to fight corruption. It is a major innovation in the field and it is also very challenging.
For example a nonprofit organization will be able, thanks to the Open Bank Project, to share its financial data with its stakeholders.There is also a whole mediation mechanism: for each group, for example for donors, there is a specific view on the data: donors can see the money they have donated on the Open Bank’s website and can also see where this money is spent.
Is Open Bank a European project?
The project was started in Berlin by Simon Redfern, Tesobe’s CEO, but it is open source. We are not only focused on Germany; we are talking to partners in several EU countries and we aim at expanding the project all over the world.
Many actors have shown interest in the Open Bank project, from banks to nonprofits, to many organizations. We are negotiating with banks all over Europe.
What is your current involvement with social business in Africa?
I am going to talk about the Open Bank Project in Algeria, to show people what good projects are taking place in Europe. I am also involved in MakeSense, a global network that supports and accelerates the work of social entrepreneurs. I initiated the MakeSense chapter in Germany and in Algiers. Another project I launched some months ago, together with some partners, isFeowl, a platform to monitor power cuts in Africa.
Social business in Africa is still not very big, it is still not a trend, but I think it will soon become more spread . There are a lot of talented and very smart people who want to shed light on it and believe in it.
Twitter: @iChaib
Read Ismail Chaib’s blog: http://www.idontfixyourpc.com
