The first cohort of 30 Kenyan SME entrepreneurs have graduated from the Unilever Emerge Accelerator programme.
The first cohort of Kenyan entrepreneurs was sought from businesses with at least 51% shareholding owned by women, persons that are abled differently, underrepresented and minority groups from select sectors in supply chains dealing with packaging materials, business services, ingredients, chemicals, or logistics.
The Programme is a partnership between SME Support Center and Unilever that leverages respective strengths and expertise of both partners to deliver relevant insights through training on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, e-commerce, business mentorship, and coaching.
“It is inspiring and encouraging to witness the growth and development of each of the SMEs who enrolled in the Emerge Accelerator Programme. As you are aware, Unilever has equity, diversity, and an inclusion agenda at the core of its purpose. We are keen on creating economic opportunities for people to grow their businesses to make a wider impact on our Kenyan economy and even beyond. This has been shown through our commitment to annually spend Kes 312B globally and Kes 1B locally with diverse businesses by 2025”, Luck Ochieng, CEO – Unilever Kenya.
The Programme also offers an opportunity for the SMEs to access markets by leveraging Unilever as a potential client and networking among peer businesses.