The African Development Bank announced this month that it is looking to support projects and proposals that aim to enhance women’s entrepreneurship across the continent. As such, the bank has set up an application platform where it will assess all applicants’ track record and provide funding between USD 100,000 and 250,000.
Applicants’ previous support of women-led businesses and enterprises, innovative strategies, development impact, and their capacity to mobilise other funding are going to be the criteria that the bank will assess.
The funding is going to be facilitated through the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative (AFAWA). AFAWA is being implemented in 15 African countries so far, and the new call-for-proposals for entrepreneurship “enablers” is going to give priority to applicants from these countries but is not limited to them.
AFAWA aims to unlock USD 5 billion in financing for small and medium enterprises owned and managed by women by 2026. It is supported by the Bank’s partners and donors, the Group of Seven (G7) countries, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
The application deadline is May 30th. Go here for the full call for proposal document and proposal form.