The Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) has opened applications for its Growth Accelerator Programme for 2018, seeking 25 early-growth-stage South African women entrepreneurs to support to scale their businesses.
Applications are open until August 31 for the six-week programme, which is designed to support participants with the business modelling and growth strategy required to scale their enterprises, become investment ready and develop entrepreneurial leadership.
The programme, which starts on September 17 and is sponsored by Nedbank, will cover aspects such as target market, competitive landscape and value proposition; delivery model; financial modelling; growth strategy; and pitching training.
The AWIEF Growth Accelerator, with its first 25 participants, is implemented as a build-up programme that will culminate at the 2018 AWIEF Conference, Exhibition and Awards event taking place on November 8-9 in Cape Town, where participating entrepreneurs will pitch their business to an audience of investors, business leaders and corporate decision-makers.
The three best ventures stand to win monetary prizes from AWIEF and financial management advice from Nedbank.
“We support initiatives such as this in line with our pledge to help clients see money differently, which is aimed at making a difference in South Africa, not just for women and children and business, but also for communities throughout the country,” said Nirmala Reddy, senior manager of Nedbank Enterprise Development.
“The bank strongly focuses on the development of female employees and black-women-owned suppliers, and this can be seen through our development and training programmes. We are also proud that women make up 62 per cent of the workforce at Nedbank.”
