On February 17, 2022, within the framework of the 7th EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF), a high-level event was dedicated to the empowerment of women, in particular through a series of public-private partnership initiatives, among which the “Women Entrepreneurship for Africa” (WE4A) programme.
WE4A program is an action jointly supported by the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), and the German Development agency GIZ (E4D program). It is focused on empowering underserved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa comprising of women, youth, and the informal sector.
The program aims to improve the business capacity of women-led enterprises to increase their chances of raising follow-on funding from private sector investors. Both the initial acceleration and the follow-on growth programs aim to support women entrepreneurs, in Sub-Saharan Africa, to flourish and contribute to employment creation in their communities through enhanced business capacities, access to formal financial services, and integration into local and regional value chains.
The Acceleration/Growth Programme is implemented with support of SAFEEM (Swiss Association for Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets).
The WE4A is part of the Joint OACPS-EU Pricate Sector Development Strategy which includes programmes and initiatives such as the ICR Facility supports the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) in developing a gender scheme for financial and non-financial services for women and youth in agribusiness, and in engaging in public-private dialogue with stakeholders in the agriculture value chain.
“In January 2022, a new phase of WomenEntrepeneurship4Africa programme kicked off, with 101 women benefiting from an acceleration programme with training and second stage financing overall, we expect the WomenEntrepeneurship4Africa to help 2200 women-led businesses, create 2800 jobs, bring more security to 5300 existing jobs and provide second-stage funding to 120 women-led entreprises.”