The Event Highlights

The gathering included notable #TEFAlumni who shared compelling success stories catalysed by TEF’s interventions. These alumni offered unique insights into the growth opportunities and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Africa.

Commitment to Empowering Women

The event underscored a strong commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs. Discussions centred on fostering an enabling environment, access to capital, and the role of mentorship in supporting women-led businesses.

Key Discussions and Insights

Participants explored strategies to enhance the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development, particularly through the lens of gender equity. The intersection of innovation, technology, and inclusive growth was a central theme, highlighting the pivotal role of women in shaping Africa’s economic future.

Looking Ahead

As the Tony Elumelu Foundation continues to champion entrepreneurship and empower women across Africa, the event marked a significant milestone in fostering collaboration and driving actionable initiatives.

Watch the Event Recap

For an in-depth look at the event and insights from key speakers, watch the video below;

Join the Conversation

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About The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

The post Driving Women Entrepreneurship in Africa: A High-Level Reception Hosted by the Tony Elumelu Foundation appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

This project is funded by the European Union, the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

This is a great opportunity for female business owners because women entrepreneurs in Uganda and the rest of Africa are confronted with barriers that hinder them from succeeding as entrepreneurs. Women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) lack access to financial resources and to professional support. These challenges have intensified because of the Covid-19 outbreak and its economic side effects. Broad action, including the creation of structures of technical assistance for entrepreneurs and access to finance is needed.

“Enabling women-led businesses to integrate into local, regional and international value chains is the goal of the Women Entrepre­neurship for Africa project. To achieve this, the project combines the expertise of its different partners to create a pathway to success for women entrepreneurs in Africa,” says Donald Agaba, the E4D Uganda Team Leader.

Somachi Chris-Asoluka, the Director of Partnerships and Communications at TEF explains that “The launch of the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa Programme is in line with the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission and commitment to eradicating poverty, driving job creation and transforming the African continent by empowering young African entrepreneurs. As a result of this partnership with the EU Commission and OACPS, over 120 women entrepreneurs will receive the much-needed support in areas of additional funding up to EUR 50,000, access to market opportunities, knowledge enhancement, and technical training.

This programme builds on the immense success of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, as our entrepreneurs have successfully created and deployed innovative business solutions to help their communities. Through its proprietary digital platform TEFConnect, the Foundation has supported over 1.5million young Africans and directly funded nearly 11,000 African MSMEs from across all 54 African countries. We are proud to be fostering a new narrative of entrepreneurship on the continent.”

The WE4A project will contribute to closing existing gender gaps in the labour markets, especially in terms of 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.

Beyond the immediate effects on directly supported businesses, WE4A will improve the support structures for African women entrepreneurs through collaboration with business associations, financial institutions and local service providers. Additionally, the programme will help African MSMEs navigate through the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is expected that because of the WE4A project across Africa 2,400 women-led enterprises’ business capacities will be enhanced. 2,800 additional jobs will be created in women-led enterprises 5,300 existing jobs will be secured and 120 women-led enterprises shall secure second stage financing to further expand their businesses.

Update: About The WE4A II (Women Entrepreneurship for Africa, 2024 Application Process)

Following the successful pilot of the WE4A programme in 2021, the Foundation in partnership with the European Union (EU) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has launched the WE4A II for sustainable and inclusive growth. Application for the WE4A II is ongoing, Read about the WE4A II FAQs here

This partnership is part of the overall IYBA-WE4A programme which will work to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystems, access to finance and capacities of women-led MSMEs and start-ups in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The design of the IYBA-WE4A programme seeks to address the existing capacity, business services and funding gaps for its target group -women-led MSMEs and start-ups- and strengthen relevant networks and learning on successful pathways for women entrepreneurs. Overall, the IYBA-WE4A programme in encouraging and sustaining women entrepreneurs and their businesses contributes to the creation of employment and economic prosperity.

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