How to Access These 5 Funding Sources for Women Entrepreneurs in Africa and Amount Available
- Women-owned businesses in Africa have a lot of funding sources available for them to access and run their businesses successfully
- Most grant agencies offer training programmes for women entrepreneurs in Africa and help them run successful organisations.
- Some of the funds range from $5,000 to $250,000 for most programmes for women entrepreneurs.
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The difference in funding between women-owned and men-run businesses in Africa is broad and concerns many stakeholders.
Women have proven that they can run business concerns and very profitably too.
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African women can
Securing grants or funding for women-owned businesses in Africa has been described as arduous and tasking, given that many women entrepreneurs put much more effort into obtaining financing than their male counterparts.
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However, there are a lot of funding opportunities and sources for women businesses in Africa which offer grants and funding for women in business across the continent.
She Leads Africa Accelerator Grant: This organisation has proven to be one of the prolific funding sources for women entrepreneurs in Africa. She Leads Africa is committed to helping ambitious women achieve their funding goals.
The grant is given annually and has onboarded over 700,000 women entrepreneurs across Africa. It offers women aged 18-35 about N2 million in seed funding. The programme lasts for six months.
Access Bank's Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa: It is available for women entrepreneurs across nine African countries where Access Bank has its presence.
The programme has 3 months duration when women entrepreneurs pitch their projects, and a mini MBA training programme is organised in partnership with the International Finance Corporation. Successful candidates get grants ranging from N500,000 to N5 million.
Miss Africa Seed Grants for African Women in Tech Business: This is a $5,000 grant programme courtesy of the Del York Creative Academy. Runner-ups also get $1000 each.
The scheme was designed to help African women in the STEM fields. The programme includes:
- Hackathons.
- Coding boot camps for girls.
- Early incubation for female entrepreneurs.
- App development training courses.
In the end, three winners will emerge, and the overall winner clinches the $5,000 reward.
The programme lasts for six weeks.
African Women Development Fund: This is available for women-led non-profit organisations at the forefront of social justice, women's rights, and security. To become eligible for the grant, candidates must meet some criteria, including a minimum of three years of operating the organisation; it must be a female-led NGO, and the organisation must be well-structured with an understandable hierarchy.
Since its debut in 2000, it has awarded about $59 million in grants to over 1,300 women's organisations in 47 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
US African Development Foundation (USADF) Accelerate Africa Entrepreneurship Challenge 2022:
The programme aims to bolster African job creation, especially for youths and women.
According to reports, the USADF was established to invest in Micro, Small, and Mid-enterprises (MSMEs). To qualify for the grant, candidates must get a straightforward solution to a problem affecting the African economy and sustainability metrics.
Successful candidates will receive between N50,000 to N250,000 in grants from the USADF Access to aid their technical assistance and corporate governance.
The programme aims to empower youths and women by teaching them how to apply for and secure grant across Africa successfully.
New report shows African countries with the highest number of women entrepreneurs
Recall that Legit.ng reported that The 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs has ranked Botswana, Uganda and Ghana as the countries with the highest number of female entrepreneurs for the third consecutive year.
Botswana came tops with a 38.5 per cent increase in women who run businesses in the country, followed by Uganda at 38.4 and Ghana at 37.2 per cent.
Business Insider said the index is calculated as a percentage of total business owners. This edition of the ranking spotlights the impact of women businesses on the socio-economic contribution of women entrepreneurs across the globe, including in Africa and it gives insights into the elements propelling and hindering their progress.
Source: Legit.ng
