Frans Wittermans (He / Him)

Mr. Frans Wittermans, qualified with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Rotterdam School of Management, is an astute professional in the field of private sector development with 20 years of practical experience. He has an exceptional ability to drive development with an entrepreneurial mindset, with vast project management experience that underpins efficient resource and team management as well as effective liaison with clients and other relevant stakeholder groups, for the sustainable achievement of project objectives. In the roles of Team Leader, Project Component Manager and Key Expert he has over 15 years of professional experience covering the design, implementation and evaluation of international cooperation policies, programs and projects. Mr. Wittermans is highly experienced and with strong expertise in the fields of definition and implementation of business enabling environment improvement, as well as reforms supporting the business development sector, and leading change processes on regulatory, legal and institutional frameworks that govern how SME and MSME businesses operate within a country. He gained vast professional experience in Business Development Support, Public-private dialogue, Financial inclusion, Digitalization, Developing sustainable value chains, Women economic empowerment, Entrepreneurship development, Access to finance and investment facilitation, Human rights approach in business and Corporate Social Responsibility, Skills development, Communication and knowledge management, and Facilitation of sustainable investments, including green and social investments. Mr. Wittermans has geographically wide, professional experience which covers over 6 years in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as from countries from other developing regions such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Ukraine, Nicaragua, and Suriname. He has distinguished skills in the area of SME matchmaking combined with a sharp acumen for investor facilitation, and has thus been successful in supporting enterprises to build meaningful business relationships that promote foreign trade and export, while facilitating access to investments, through linkages with individual investors and other structured sources of finance such as financial institutions and subsidised SME financing programs, e.g. Dutch-funded Matchmaking Facility (MMF) and the Private Sector Investment (PSI) programme managed by RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency). Mr. Wittermans has excellent understanding of EU funded project management rules obtained by working on several EU projects during his career. He is fluent in English and Dutch (mother tongue) and possesses excellent written and oral communication skills in both languages.