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AFRICA • TECHNOLOGY
Seedstars Global
JUNE 1, 2022
The Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) announces a Growth Programme that has selected 30 female entrepreneurs to receive up to an additional €50,000 in grant funding as well as an additional three months of training focused on growth. The 30 companies were selected after the WE4A Acceleration Programme demo day where 99 entrepreneurs pitched their solutions. To learn more about the 30 companies, visit safeem.org/women-entrepreneurship-4-africa.
The main objective of the WE4A Program is to support women entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling them to flourish and contribute to employment creation in their communities through enhanced business capacities, access to formal financial services, and integration into local and regional value chains.
The WE4A project will contribute to closing existing gender gaps in the labor markets, especially in terms of the quality of jobs. WE4A will ignite structural changes, as women who become successful entrepreneurs serve as role models in their societies and encourage other women and girls to pursue their choice of career.
"The acceleration and growth programmes show how the enormous potential of growth-oriented, women-owned businesses can be better harnessed for employment and prosperity on the African continent. SAFEEM has proven to be a highly professional implementation partner, providing needs-based training and mentoring to the selected women entrepreneurs and guiding them towards investment readiness." Elmar Kerck, GIZ Team Leader WE4A
SAFEEM, the non-profit branch of the Seedstars group, was tasked with executing an Acceleration Programme where 99 female entrepreneurs received €10,000 in grant funding along with 3 months of technical support to help them refine their businesses and scale to the next level. The program included over 30 workshops, expert presentations, and networking sessions. Companies were also matched with a dedicated mentor for 1:1 meetings, as well as provided with EiR support in small groups.
Interesting WE4A Acceleration Programme Figures
The Acceleration Programme provided 99 women-led companies from across 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a recorded 800 hours of mentor meetings, 67 hours of training per company, and 234 experiments run by the entrepreneurs.
The benefits of the program can be observed in the resulting 88% of the SMEs recording a positive change in their One Metric That Matters (OMTM), 91% of the companies reaching their individual KPIs, and 165 additional jobs created in the companies, 69 of which are attributed directly to the program (on top of the 1,126 jobs supported initially at the beginning).
Interested investors and partners are invited to learn more about the companies in the cohort by watching pitch videos on the WE4A Acceleration Programme website where 1on1 meetings can also be booked directly with the entrepreneurs: safeem.org/women-entrepreneurship-4-africa.
WE4A Acceleration Programme Prize Winners
During the program’s demo day, some participants of the program were also able to receive prizes from the partners: CADAP, Tekedia, Nigeria Trade and Investment Summit in the United Kingdom, Adalo, and Bubble.io. The prize winners are as follows:
“From fully running their own businesses, to being activists in their communities, to supporting and running their families, all the while going through a very intense 3-month long acceleration program, the 99 female entrepreneurs that went through the WE4A Acceleration Programme are an inspiration,” shares Elizabeth Jones, Senior Program Manager at SAFEEM.
“In just a short time all of the companies that went through the program achieved growth in some way, be it revenue, traction, employees, or new partnerships, their hard work and dedication paid off. As the program manager, it was an honor to work with them all, and I cannot wait to see the milestones they achieve with the training and connections they gained through this program.”
WE4A Growth Programme Participants
From the Acceleration Programme, 30 entrepreneurs were selected to receive follow-on funding of up to €50,000 as well as an additional three months of the growth programme training. The 30 selected women-led companies are the following:
European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said: “Empowering women and supporting small businesses is at the heart of the EU efforts. Women entrepreneurs help build prosperity, create new jobs and contribute to a more equal, sustainable society. The European Union is proud to support the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) programme as part of the EU-Africa: Global Gateway Investment Package.”
WE4A aims to provide female-led SMEs with enhanced business capacities, access to funding, market opportunities, knowledge enhancement, and technical training through the joint efforts of the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with implementation from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (E4D program). Running the acceleration and growth program components of WE4A is the Swiss Association for Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets (SAFEEM), a member of the Seedstars Group.
Interested investors and partners can watch the pitches and schedule meetings with the WE4A participants by visiting the website here: safeem.org/women-entrepreneurship-4-africa.
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ABOUT SAFEEM
SAFEEM (Swiss Association For Entrepreneurship) is an independent non-profit organization based in Geneva, which was created to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets. The organization is part of the Seedstars Group and works in association with Seedstars is a Swiss-based private company with a similar mission of making an impact on people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. For more information, visit https://safeem.org/.
ABOUT EUROPEAN UNION
The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 European countries. It is founded on the values of peace, respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. The European Union acts globally to promote sustainable development of societies and economies.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC STATES (OACPS)
The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), which became an International Organisation in April 2020, evolved from the ACP Group founded via the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific States. The OACPS promotes the sustainable development of our Member-States and their gradual integration into the global economy with the ultimate objective of reducing and eventually eradicating poverty. Youth and Women empowerment are at the center of our actions.
ABOUT THE GERMAN FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (BMZ)
Within the German government, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is responsible for Germany's development policy. The BMZ's task is to determine the objectives of German development policy; to negotiate with about 80 partner countries worldwide regarding bilateral cooperation; and to play a part in shaping multilateral cooperation. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations forms the international framework for Germany's development policy. A special focus for the BMZ is creating better opportunities in the countries where refugees originate. Other important topics are global food security, sustainable economic development, and climate action. The Ministry has its headquarters in Bonn and Berlin. The BMZ also has some staff seconded to German embassies in its partner countries and to international organisations. For the implementation of its projects, the BMZ relies on the following organisations among others: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), KfW Group, and Engagement Global – Service for Development Initiatives.
ABOUT DEUTSCHE GESELLSCHAFT FÜR INTERNATIONALE ZUSAMMENARBEIT (GIZ)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a global service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, with 23,614 employees. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. Our business volume is around 3.3 billion euros. As a public-benefit federal enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government – in particular the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – and many public and private sector clients in around 120 countries in achieving their objectives in international cooperation. With this aim, GIZ works together with its partners to develop effective solutions that offer people better prospects and sustainably improve their living conditions.
ABOUT TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, catalyzing economic growth, driving poverty eradication, and ensuring job creation on the continent.
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