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5 Entrepreneurship Programs for an African Entrepreneur in 2023
Access to funding and great mentorship is one of the biggest challenges facing African entrepreneurs.
The truth is that there are countless funding opportunities available for African entrepreneurs and all you need detailed information about these opportunities, know how to access them, and be willing to actually access them.
In this article, we highlight some of the programs organized by leading companies in various sectors and the benefits that come with joining them.
Smart Path Global Small Business Program
Sponsored by Mastercard, the Start Path Small Business program is a four-month program for startups to collaborate with the company to scale solutions that drive simple, secure digital experiences for SMEs.
The program is currently receiving applications from start-ups that are innovating across a range of digital services for SMEs including, accounting software, e-commerce solutions, lending platforms, payment technologies, digital banking, and much more.
During the four-month program, selected startups will have the opportunity to leverage Mastercard’s network and SME expertise to uncover product partnerships, scale their companies, and power solutions that drive safe, secure, and simple experiences.
Aspire Business Growth Programme by AMI
Developed exclusively for Africa’s ambitious business owners and their senior leadership team, the Aspire Business Growth Programme by AMI is a practical business growth program that equips leaders with the core skills, tools, and strategies to grow their businesses, lead teams, and diversify revenue streams.
Instead of talking to entrepreneurs about concepts and theories, AMI introduces practical business and management tools that can be applied to business practices on day one.
Participants navigate their learning journey with our learning platform and apps, powerful facilitator-led learning experiences, and peer-to-peer support.
Qualcomm® Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program
As the first initiative of its kind in Africa, Qualcomm® Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program is an equity-free mentorship program that helps identify promising early-stage startups keen on applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative end-to-end systems solutions, including hardware, and provides these companies with business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development, and guidance on protecting intellectual property.
Benefits include:
- Mentorship from Qualcomm leaders on a regular cadence and Guide startups to product realization.
- Skilling: Masterclasses on product management, pitch clinic, IPR, and hardware architecture.
- Visibility: Demo day with the startup ecosystem and an opportunity to connect with various industry leaders, VCs, investors, and other accelerators
The GSMA AgriTech Accelerator
If you are in the Agritech sector then the GSMA AgriTech Accelerator is one of the programs you need to check out!
The program was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is part of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag), and is being carried out by the GSMA on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
This initiative aims to support and fast-track the growth of innovative, revenue-generating digital agriculture solutions that support the shared vision of improving smallholder farmers’:
- Livelihoods
- Financial inclusion
- Climate resilience
The GSMA will provide up to 10 selected applicants (cohort members) with technical assistance for a period of two years to support the scaling of digital agriculture solutions.
Cohort members will benefit from a range of technical assistance tools, including targeted consulting from the GSMA team, user experience and product design/management support, farmer feedback surveys, access to GSMA events and insights, and capacity building for investor readiness.
2023 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), is a leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries.
Now in its 8th year, the TEF Program looks for African entrepreneurs with business ideas or existing businesses under 5 years.
Applicants stand a chance to win $5000 in seed capital, mentorship, business management training, and more on the 2022 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.
Since 2015, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme – the only African-funded entrepreneurship catalyst of its kind – has empowered 15,847 African entrepreneurs with a non-returnable seed capital of $5,000 each; twelve weeks of business management training; access to experienced mentors; and membership to Africa’s largest entrepreneurial ecosystem.
After only 7 cycles into this Programme, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has disbursed over USD$85million to young and enterprising beneficiaries and empowered 18,000 African women and men, who have gone on to achieve their innovative concepts and who are solving Africa’s most challenging problems.
