Building Partnerships to Accelerate Digital Transformation, Impact and Sustainability in Africa post Covid-19 Pandemic
A gathering of Africa’s business leaders, successful entrepreneurs and industry experts to generate ideas that advance building business resilience, fostering digital transformation, creating partnerships, mainstreaming sustainability and boosting investments in Africa post the Covid-19 pandemic.
Program
The Women of the Future Hub aims to allow a selection of Gabonese entrepreneurs to benefit from dedicated support including training, mentoring and access to financing.
This hub is the materialization of WIA and Eramet’s commitment to create dynamic and innovative ecosystems in Africa through female entrepreneurship.
The Women of the Future Hub, the first of its kind in Libreville, will also be a place to host events to highlight and promote Gabonese female entrepreneurship throughout the year.
Through this program we want to contribute to the development of a community of local innovators, who provide solutions to the many challenges facing Africa, particularly with regard to innovation and new technologies, Fintech, agricultural transformation; and to make the business models that emerge from these solutions viable and sustainable.
First of all, a call for applications launched in early May 2022 to all Gabonese entrepreneurs.
After the selection phase of the 30 winners of our first promotion, the program will begin with training sessions that will focus on technical and “soft skills” topics such as writing the business plan or public speaking. Entrepreneurs will also be trained in the entrepreneurial pitch and will receive all the necessary keys to access financing. Following this training phase, a selection of winners can be presented to a panel of investors during virtual roadshows and will be accompanied in the implementation of financing research with banks. Beneficiaries will have the opportunity to be accompanied by the best experts.
Subsequently, Gabonese entrepreneurs will be put in touch with a dedicated mentor who will accompany them to support them in the realization of their projects, with consistency and benevolence.
Throughout the program, women entrepreneurs will also benefit from visibility on WIA’s social networks.
Call for applications
The call for applications will take place from May 3 2022 to May 25 2022, at midnight Libreville time. Candidates will have to fill in the application form, which has 2 types of headings:
- personal information;
- information about the company.
The Women in Africa team will make a rigorous selection according to the criteria of motivation, progress and potential of the project presented.
Eligibility criteria:
- The company created or run by a Gabonese woman
- First traction on the market (turnover, number of users and/or customers, funds raised, etc.)
The criteria for selecting projects:
- Extensibility of the proven business model
- Growth potential
- Ambitious team with a strong execution capacity
- Innovative product, service or technology is a plus
- Potential impact in Africa