Village Capital and Norad, the Norwegian development agency, have partnered to launch Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa, an ecosystem-building programme aimed at strengthening the capacity and impact of Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) and climate-focused startups in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
Village Capital has operated in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2012, running over 14 accelerator programmes and serving entrepreneurs in 15 countries in the region. Norad, meanwhile, works with partners across the world to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa initiative will adopt a dual-track approach – firstly equipping community-led ESOs with the technical expertise and resources necessary to foster sustainable growth within their organisations; and secondly directly supporting climate-focused ventures in the priority countries and cultivating a long-term pipeline of high-growth, investable startups advancing solutions in critical areas such as the blue economy, climate adaptation, food security, and renewable energy.
“ESOs play a crucial role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, serving as the first line of support for entrepreneurs, acting as both trainer and convener of essential networks such as investors and talent, especially in emerging ecosystems,” said Rachel Crawford, who leads special projects at Village Capital.
“However, these same ESOs typically operate as the startups they support and often lack the final piece of the puzzle – capital to deploy directly to startups. Village Capital aims to address each of these three needs through our unique initiative design by leveraging ecosystem development, enterprise support, and catalytic capital.”
Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo, director of climate and environment at Norad, said his organisation was excited to partner with Village Capital on Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa.
Entrepreneurs and startups with innovative ideas and services have an important role to play in contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Today such actors often lack access to financing and technical support due to a number of barriers. We hope that by strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem through ESOs, some of these barriers will be overcome,” he said.
“This partnership is also exciting for us in that it is multi-sectoral, working on blue economy, renewable energy, food security, and climate adaptation, to deliver the best possible total contribution to innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa.”
To learn more about the program and explore opportunities for engagement as an ESO, Village Capital will run an information session specifically tailored for ESOs in the targeted countries. The session will provide detailed insights into the programme and its eligibility criteria. For more information about the programme and to express your interest in participating in the information session, reach out to Ahmed Fadl, programme manager at Village Capital (ahmed.fadl@vilcap.com).
