Deadline: 7-May-21
Applications are now open for the 2021 Women in Africa (WIA) 54 Programme for African Women Entrepreneurs to support more than 10,000 women entrepreneurs, indirectly contributing to the creation of 100,000 jobs, by 2030.
Each year, it endows 54 African women entrepreneurs from 54 African countries with a comprehensive support package consisting of training, communication, and networking.
WIA launches a pan-African competition of entrepreneurial projects led by women to identify and coach 54 women entrepreneurs for 1 year. More than 9,000 applications have already been reviewed since the beginning of this program, and more than 175 start-ups have been supported.
Categories
The categories are as follows:
- Education
- Health
- Digital
- Fintech
- Agriculture
- Sustainable development
- Beauty industries
- Creative Industries
- Gold Award: Jury Prize
Benefits
- Training & Mentoring
- Network
- International Exposure
- The class also benefts from the support of godmothers.
- The godmother is a source of inspiration for these women, sometimes a role model, always a charismatic and encouraging personality.
- She leads networking actions and supports the development of the laureate’s projects.
Eligibility Criteria
Any African woman entrepreneur whose business is in Africa.
The criteria are as follows:
- Business created or led by an African woman
- Startup created less than 5 years ago
- First traction on the market (sales, number of users, funds raised)
- Be part of one of the 8 categories
- Applicants can only compete in a category that is their primary business category. For example:
- If you produce jams sold exclusively on a website, your category is “Agriculture” not “Digital.”
- If you offer digital training, your primary category is “Education” and your secondary category is “Digital”
Evaluation Criteria
- Innovative product, service or technology
- Proven business model scalability
- Strong growth potential
- Ambitious team with strong execution ability
- Market traction (revenue, number of users, funds raised)
- Potential impact in Africa
For more information, visit https://wia-initiative.com/eng-wia542021/