Prime Business Africa
The European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) is excited to announce the call for applications for the fourth edition of the BIC Africa Online Acceleration Programme for Women Entrepreneurs 2024.
This programme aims to support 20 women entrepreneurs, including 15 from the country projects Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Somalia, and 5 others from other Sub-Saharan African countries, in scaling their businesses while contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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About the Acceleration Programme
The BIC Africa Acceleration Programme 2024 is seeking established women entrepreneurs willing to explore growing (and potentially internationalizing) their businesses. The programme will run from April to July 2024 for four months, focusing on post-revenue women entrepreneurs with registered startups or businesses across all sectors and business types.
Twenty selected women entrepreneurs will benefit from:
- A full online training course (6 modules)
- Dedicated group coaching sessions (4 sessions)
- Two networking sessions
- Introduction to the alumnae network of the BIC Africa Women Acceleration programme
- Access to other networking and market linkage opportunities and events
Programme Components
The core programme will include:
- 6 online interactive training modules (each lasting 1.5 hours) on topics such as Mission and Unique Value Proposition, Product Development, Business Model, Team & Partnerships, Finance, and Marketing.
- 4 online group coaching sessions (each lasting 1.5 hours) on topics like Leadership and Influencing Skills, Mastering Personal and Business Finances, Storytelling and Pitch Training, and Time Management and Prioritization.
- 2 networking sessions (at the beginning and end of the programme)
- Access to support documents and recordings of the sessions
- Integration into the BIC Africa Community of women entrepreneurs, with visibility on the EBN website, integration into the LinkedIn group, and access to other networking and market linkage opportunities and events.
Additional Opportunities and Awards
The programme will open the door for further opportunities and awards:
- A Certificate of Recognition for those who successfully complete the 12-week acceleration programme (attending at least 9 out of 12 sessions).
- Remote one-to-one mentoring sessions for high-performing participants, matched with a European incubation expert to accompany their growth trajectory.
- Other Business Awards (e.g., additional support, highlighted visibility on the EBN website, invitation to participate in a BIC Africa event) for high-performing participants.
This programme is offered via BIC Africa with the support of the European Union.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply and participate, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- The applicant must be a woman founder/CEO of a company (minimum age of 18).
- The business must be already in existence (and registered) for more than 1 year and have an operational team.
- The applicant must be based in Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Somalia being the main target countries with 15 seats available, out of 20).
- The applicant must have a good working knowledge of the English language.
Application Process
Interested applicants who meet the eligibility criteria should apply by 19th March 2024, 6:00 PM CET, by completing the application form at https://forms.gle/DYYcqtJie2ig1vE76, which consists of three components:
- Filling in the questions in the form on general information about the applicant and the business.
- Preparing and uploading a pitch deck (in PowerPoint Presentation or PDF format) using the provided template at https://shorturl.at/dwFQ6.
- Uploading a CV in PDF or Word format.
Only applicants who have completed all three components will be considered for selection.
Assessment Criteria
After the eligibility check, BIC Africa will review and evaluate the nominations using the following criteria and scoring:
Business description and business model (10 points)
Innovation dimension (10 points)
Scalability (10 points)
Impact (10 points)
Motivation (10 points)
The maximum score is 50/50, and the minimum threshold for accessing the programme is 30/50.
About BIC Africa
BIC Africa serves as a regional network dedicated to empowering chosen business incubators (BIs) across the continent. It fosters capacity enhancement, promotes fruitful exchanges with other initiatives, strengthens ties between European and African innovation hubs to foster global collaboration, seeks out business prospects with European enterprises, and upholds quality standards across all supported incubators.
Commissioned by the European Union and executed by EBN, the project is slated to operate from 2021 to 2025.
Website: bic-africa.eu
Prime Business Africa is a business, economy and policy news platform founded in 2021 by veteran journalist and media scholar, Dr Marcel Mbamalu, after he left The Guardian as Editor.
Dr Mbamalu, who serves as Founder and Publisher, set up Prime Business Africa to deliver sharp, data-driven reporting on Nigeria’s markets, trade, investment, and governance trends for decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and policy leaders.
He also writes The Bottom Line, a backpage column for Punch Newspaper every Thursday.
Under his leadership, Prime Business Africa combines deep newsroom experience with a focus on accountability journalism, aiming to bridge information gaps between Africa’s private sector and the global economy.
