The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a regional campaign for women in business known as 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWSP). The platform is an information and networking hub for women, which helps them to start, grow and scale up and finance their businesses.
The campaign, named 30 days of women in business, will run on radio and social media channels over the next one month. The campaign aims to promote the platform in Comoros, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Eswatini, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The campaign invites women in the region to log onto the platform or to download the 50MAWSP app from the Google or Apple stores.
To participate, applicants will be required to register on the platform, then submit short stories about their most admired businesswomen. Here, they will be required to give the reasons why, and what they would tell them if they had a chance to meet them in person.
The 50MAWS platform is jointly implemented by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and enables women in 38 countries in the three regional blocs to find information business opportunities and entrepreneurship.
The COMESA Secretary General, HE Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, sees the campaign as a great step in driving awareness about the platform.
“The campaign’s appeal for women to identify and celebrate their most admired women entrepreneurs speaks to a key facet of the 50 Million African Women Speak initiative, which is facilitating support and mentorship by women for women,” Ms. Kapwepwe said.