The Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) has announced a Growth Programme that has seen 30 female entrepreneurs across Africa selected to receive up to an additional €50,000 (about UGX201,700,000) in grant funding as well as an additional three months of training focused on growth.
The 30 companies were selected after the WE4A Acceleration Programme demo day where 99 entrepreneurs pitched their solutions.
Among the winners are three Ugandan companies; Chil Artificial Intelligence Lab, Dromedic and Women Smiles Uganda.
Chil Artificial Intelligence Lab was founded by Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa – affectionately named “Mama Cancer” by African continent. The company uses the power of machine learning and AI to put chronic disease prevention and management services in the hands of any woman.
Headed by Sarah Niwemaani Co-founder / Fundraising and Marketing Lead, Dromedic links blood suppliers with hospitals—reducing waste and increasing fast blood delivery, while maintaining quality control.
Women Smiles Uganda provides affordable, reliable, and modern training in sustainable vertical farming concepts for underserved women in Africa. The company is headed by Lilian Nakigozi, founder and Executive Director.
The main objective of the WE4A Program is to support women entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling them to flourish and contribute to employment creation in their communities through enhanced business capacities, access to formal financial services, and integration into local and regional value chains.
The WE4A project will contribute to closing existing gender gaps in the labor markets, especially in terms of the quality of jobs. WE4A will ignite structural changes, as women who become successful entrepreneurs serve as role models in their societies and encourage other women and girls to pursue their choice of career.
“The acceleration and growth programmes show how the enormous potential of growth-oriented, women-owned businesses can be better harnessed for employment and prosperity on the African continent. SAFEEM has proven to be a highly professional implementation partner, providing needs-based training and mentoring to the selected women entrepreneurs and guiding them towards investment readiness,” Elmar Kerck, GIZ Team Leader WE4A
SAFEEM, the non-profit branch of the Seedstars group, was tasked with executing an Acceleration Programme where 99 female entrepreneurs received €10,000 in grant funding along with 3 months of technical support to help them refine their businesses and scale to the next level. The program included over 30 workshops, expert presentations, and networking sessions. Companies were also matched with a dedicated mentor for 1:1 meetings, as well as provided with EiR support in small groups.
The Acceleration Programme provided 99 women-led companies from across 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a recorded 800 hours of mentor meetings, 67 hours of training per company, and 234 experiments run by the entrepreneurs.
The benefits of the program can be observed in the resulting 88% of the SMEs recording a positive change in their One Metric That Matters (OMTM), 91% of the companies reaching their individual KPIs, and 165 additional jobs created in the companies, 69 of which are attributed directly to the program (on top of the 1,126 jobs supported initially at the beginning).
During the program’s demo day, some participants of the program were also able to receive prizes from the partners: CADAP, Tekedia, Nigeria Trade and Investment Summit in the United Kingdom, Adalo, and Bubble.io.
“From fully running their own businesses, to being activists in their communities, to supporting and running their families, all the while going through a very intense 3-month long acceleration program, the 99 female entrepreneurs that went through the WE4A Acceleration Programme are an inspiration,” shared Elizabeth Jones, Senior Program Manager at SAFEEM.
“In just a short time all of the companies that went through the program achieved growth in some way, be it revenue, traction, employees, or new partnerships, their hard work and dedication paid off. As the program manager, it was an honor to work with them all, and I cannot wait to see the milestones they achieve with the training and connections they gained through this program.”
Below are other women-led companies that were selected to receive follow-on funding of up to €50,000 as well as an additional three months of the growth programme training.
Africa Wealth Initiative (Nigeria) – Provides an on-demand delivery solution that takes fresh agro-produce from farms to homes.
Dial A Pad Limited (Kenya) – Deploys an app, e-commerce platform, and smart sanitary towel dispensers to achieve uninterrupted education for women and girls.
Eco Hustle Co Ltd (Mauritius) – Equips rural African women with affordable, effective, and 100% biodegradable sanitary napkins through an innovative sanitary napkin production unit.
Farm Innovation Nigeria Ltd (Nigeria) – Developed two products that leverage call support, mobile and web applications, and database technologies to reach farmers with advisory services.
Farm On Wheels (Nigeria) – Provides farmers access to inputs, services, and markets, on credit at 0% interest, enabling them to increase production capacity, yield, and income.
FarmerTribe (Ghana) – FarmerTribe provides timely access to agricultural inputs, training, and extension services to smallholder farmers in last-mile communities.
Farmio (Ghana) – Farmio leverages precision farming techniques to provide affordable greenhouse farms to guarantee about 120% increased productivity.
Letters to My Younger Self: Robinah Siima — “Success Is Quieter, But Richer”Fenou Packaging (Mauritius) – AGRIPACK is the first online platform that allows producers/processors in the agricultural sector to find and order packaging suitable for their products online.
Happy Coffee (Nigeria) – Designs coffee-centered solutions using locally sourced coffee with a mandate to boost local consumption and production of Nigerian coffee.
Innovate Labs (Ghana) – Innovate Labs is a design firm providing cutting-edge design and prototyping services that enable entrepreneurs to rapidly take ideas to market.
Kosmotive (Rwanda) – Kosmotive is a social enterprise that focuses on improving reproductive, maternal, and child health in Rwanda and throughout Africa.
Kwanza Cocoa (Malawi) – Kwanza Cocoa is a multifaceted business combining agriculture and manufacturing of cocoa products in Malawi. Their goal is to make locally manufactured high-quality cocoa products available at a reasonable cost.
Loom Craft Chocolate (Nigeria) – They are artisanal cocoa processors with a strong focus on the quality of our products and the sustainability of our processes.
Mamamoni (Nigeria) – MamaMoni aims to provide micro business loans to underserved women and low-income women in rural and urban areas in Nigeria.
Mukuru Clean Stoves (Kenya) – Designs, manufactures and distributes improved, efficient, and reliable cookstoves.
MyStash (Nigeria) – Helps Africans save and invest subconsciously through a save-as-you-spend/earn model. Similar to Acorns, but for Africa.
Nyayo Moms Sokos Limited (Kenya) – A one-stop e-commerce platform that will host all vendor listings, paid downloadable resources, and women’s professional listings.
ORIKI Global & Synergy LImited (Nigeria) – ORIKI is a luxury skin and hair care brand that fuses all-natural ingredients primarily sourced from the continent of Africa with scientific research to create extraordinary products.
Paperbags (Nigeria) – Paperbags is an eco-friendly packaging manufacturing company that allows SMEs in West Africa to gain easy access to eco-friendly packaging alternatives
Plumbee Wholefoods Ltd (Kenya) – Plumbee Wholefoods Ltd is a Kenyan-based, female-owned agro-processing company formed to offer affordable, functional, and nutritious foods for babies, children, and families. Their model is designed to develop strong linkages with smallholder farmers to promote family health and nutrition for low-income families.
Promane and Promade Ltd/MCare App (Nigeria) – M’Care is an AI super app that detects, diagnoses, treats, and limits the spread of diseases and outbreaks for low resource settings.
Redbutton (Nigeria) – Redbutton is a sustainable fashion company creating more sustainable alternatives, apparel, headwear, and accessories for men and women.
SourceMyGadgets (Nigeria) – A platform-based solution creating personalized services that meet the end-to-end needs of consumers and fragmented suppliers.
Store2Door (Rwanda) – An e-commerce startup that bridges the gap between farmers and consumers by allowing them to sell and list their harvest products on the website.
The Ecobarter Company (Nigeria) – Ecobarter is an integrated waste resource reduction, recovery, and recycling platform provider.
The Smart Way To Be Better (Nigeria) – Provides convenient online access to mental health services 24/7.
ZAAF Collection (Ethiopia) – ZAAF is a collection of handcrafted leather goods & accessories proudly produced in Africa from the finest materials beautifully integrated with ageless patterns created on traditional looms.
European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said: “Empowering women and supporting small businesses is at the heart of the EU efforts. Women entrepreneurs help build prosperity, create new jobs and contribute to a more equal, sustainable society. The European Union is proud to support the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) programme as part of the EU-Africa: Global Gateway Investment Package.”
WE4A aims to provide female-led SMEs with enhanced business capacities, access to funding, market opportunities, knowledge enhancement, and technical training through the joint efforts of the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with implementation from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (E4D program). Running the acceleration and growth program components of WE4A is the Swiss Association for Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets (SAFEEM), a member of the Seedstars Group.
