Access to finance has been a re-occurring theme across the African entrepreneurship landscape. Although several programmes have been designed to bridge the access to finance gap for women entrepreneurs in Africa, there are still some ways to go in levelling the playing field.

One of such organizations saddled with this mission is the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF). Through Enterprise Development Programmes and the development of innovative programmes, the forum is helping African women achieve their dreams.

In June 2022  they announced the  2022 cohort of the renowned AWIEF Growth Accelerator which is being implemented with support from Nedbank.

 The AWIEF Growth Accelerator is created to serve the specific needs of early-stage and high-growth-oriented women-led companies. It achieves this by building entrepreneurs’ capacity in business modelling, business leadership, growth strategy training, corporate advisory, mentorship, networks, and access to strategic alliances.

The accelerator provides women entrepreneurs with the requisite support to raise capital for growth and scalability.

Since 2017, the forum has supported over 120 early and growth-stage South African women entrepreneurs through its acceleration program. It is looking to extend this opportunity to 20 female entrepreneurs in the 2022 cohort of the programme.

AWIEF Growth Accelerator Programme Focus Sectors

Participating female entrepreneurs will be selected from the following sectors:

AWIEF Growth Accelerator – Programme Eligibility

  • South African Exempt Micro Enterprises (EMEs) or Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSEs); at least 51% female black-owned.
  • Interested women-led businesses should be in the post-revenue phase.
  • The growth programme will be on the lookout for scalable and innovative ventures.
  • The business should have been operational for not less than three years.
  • Participating businesses should be owned or led by enterprising and committed women entrepreneurs.
  • Interested participants should be seeking investment or funding to scale and expand.

Programme Timeline

Applications close: 4 July 2022
Accelerator starts: 1 August 2022

Click on the link here to apply

Deadline for Application: Monday, 4 July 2022 at 23:59 CAT