Development partner to bolster women entrepreneurs

Development finance institutions of Canada, the UK, France, and the United States in partnership with Master Card Foundation have launched an initiative to support women entrepreneurs.
The institutions launched the 2X Invest Impact Business Competitions at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Addis Ababa.
The project focuses on East African countries specifically Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda aimed at supporting women-owned business to increase the commerciality of their product and create impact local community.
The competition has four categories such as projects aligned to the sustainable development goals, small and medium scale business (SME), social entrepreneurs, and innovation-focused business on health, technology, agriculture and tourism.
The competition is open only to the majority of women-owned business that will be done via electronic methods which will be selected through applications on their website.
“The women-focused business competitions will help them to create networking and access to finance,“ said Stephanie Emoden, Director of Impact Fin Dev Canada.
The entries for all tracks of the competition will begin next a week and remain up to the end of September by which the 25 finalists, five women participants from each of the participant countries will compete for the 85,000 USD prize that will be expected to be announced in the mid of November 2019.
Apart from this, a total of 100 women participants will be chosen from all the competition entrants to participate in any one of the four tracks.
According to the organizers, all selected participant in the 2X invest impact program will be the founding member of 2X connect anew online community dedicated for African women entrepreneurs and designed to support collaboration, leadership and key business skills.
“We need 2X a platform to connect, learn and celebrate the power of East African women business leaders who are positively impacting their communities, countries and continent,” adds Emoden.