Women in Africa (WIA) in partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation have launched a program that aims to impact 20,000 women entrepreneurs from 10 African countries over the next three years. In its first year, the programme aims to support women entrepreneurs based in 3 countries: Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.
The program dubbed JAMII Femmes seeks innovative solutions to bring positive changes in Africa by improving the quality of life for thousands of people and will allow participants to receive support through online training, networking, mentorship and local bootcamps.
7,000 impactful women entrepreneurs will be selected to take part in an online training programme from August to November 2022. The sessions which will be conducted by WIA’s knowledge partner while Africa’s first and largest network of private higher education institutions, Honoris United Universities, will equip the women to take a principled approach to design creative ideas, and gain knowledge on leadership and managerial skills.
The first phase is a 4-month digital training phase, conducted by WIA’s partner, Honoris United Universities which will enable them to develop skills in:
- behavioural intelligence,
- critical thinking,
- creativity and design thinking,
- communication, collaboration,
- entrepreneurship.
In the second phase, selected beneficiaries will have access to grants.
In the third phase, selected beneficiaries will be able to participate in an accelerator programme, after which a special prize of Ksh. 1.1 million ($10,000) will be awarded per country.
Selection criteria:
- Women over 18 years old
- Nationals * or residents of Nigeria, Kenya or Ivory Coast
- Entrepreneur
- Mainly in the Agriculture sector and/or in relation to the sustainable development objectives defined by UNESCO
Debra Mallowah, Vice President, East and Central Africa Franchise, said: “We are excited to roll out this new initiative as it will play a critical role in accelerating our focus on how we impact women and the communities that we operate in. We are particularly happy to have Kenya as one of the beneficiary countries in phase 1, as it will enable us build on the previous milestones from our 5by20 programme (empower 5 million women by 2020 worldwide) where we were able to economically empower up to 800,000 women in Kenya alone, and 2 million Africa-wide in a span of 5 years. Women empowerment remains one of our key pillars in driving the sustainability agenda and we are keen to bring on board more initiatives that deliver the desired positive impact in the lives of women in Kenya and Africa. “
Women entrepreneurs in Kenya can apply to JAMII Femmes by visiting jamiifemmes2022.selecteev.io.