On the International Year of Cooperatives, Legacoop and SIMEST are strengthening their collaboration with the goal of supporting cooperative enterprises in their internationalization and growth across foreign markets.
The partnership will take shape through a series of meetings throughout 2025, designed to present member cooperatives with the financial solutions and tools offered by SIMEST.
The program includes six online “Morning Coffee” sessions and a three-stop in-person Roadshow — in Bologna, Milan, and Cagliari — offering cooperatives opportunities for in-depth discussion and direct engagement with SIMEST experts:
- The Morning Coffee sessions are short morning webinars focused on presenting SIMEST’s main tools: from subsidized internationalization loans to equity investments and export credit support.
- The Roadshow, on the other hand, provides in-person meetings featuring thematic seminars followed by one-on-one sessions between enterprises and SIMEST consultants to assess, in a tailored way, the most suitable solutions for each cooperative.
The First Stop in Bologna: Spotlight on the “Africa Initiative”
The first stop of Legacoop’s national Roadshow took place in Bologna, hosted by Legacoop Emilia-Romagna, and focused on the “Africa Initiative” — a strategic SIMEST program offering subsidized financing to support investments in digitalization, sustainability, training, and the hiring of local personnel in African markets.
The meeting was an important opportunity for dialogue between the cooperative movement and institutional representatives, both Italian and international. Among the participants were:
– the Legal Advisory Office of the Mission Structure for the Mattei Plan, the International Cooperative Alliance – Africa, the International Relations Offices of Legacoop Emilia-Romagna and Legacoop Nazionale.
Adding a practical dimension to the discussion were the experiences shared by Galassi Sementi (part of C.A.C. Seeds), Politecnica, and Alfa Engineering — Emilia-Romagna-based cooperatives already active in several African countries. Their contributions provided direct insights into development opportunities and operational challenges on the continent.
Africa today represents not only a strategic challenge but also a major opportunity for Italian cooperative enterprises. It is a rapidly expanding market, with a growing demand for infrastructure, technology, and consumer goods, and an environment increasingly open to sustainable collaborations and long-term partnerships.
