The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa is a support program launched by the W Initiative of Access Bank. This initiative is designed to provide female-owned businesses across Africa an opportunity to access financial grants and world-class business training, as well as mentoring opportunities.
This initiative which started in 2019, has been able to provide financial grants worth about N9 million to the top 5 applicants, and a free mini MBA certification for 50 female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This year’s edition, the Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa 2020 was recently announced, and here’s all you need to know before you apply for the grant.
Requirements For The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa 2020
Being the biggest business growth program for women in Nigeria, and more recently, other countries in Africa, this program is highly competitive.
As a female entrepreneur in the fashion, beauty, and all other industries, either in Nigeria, Congo, Zambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, or the Gambia, you are qualified to apply for this grant.
Interested persons are required to create a profile that contains their personal and contact details such as the name, email, and phone number.
That’s not all, however, as a unique capacity building program aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs, an online application form has to be filled from which only 500 applications would be selected.
What does the online application form contain?
Apart from the personal and contact information provided previously, this online application form is for the organizers to know the entrepreneur and the business better.
Questions like highest educational qualification, details about the business owner, or personal achievements are contained in the personal segment of this form.
Going ahead to the business aspect is where entrepreneurs have to fill fields asking for the brand name, location, and type of industry. They also want to know if the business is a registered one, and how long it has been in operation for, the number of employees present, as well as the annual turnover.
The elevator pitch, which is designed for the entrepreneurs to sell their business to an investor under a minute is also required in this form. To find out how to create a winning elevator pitch to attract investors, click here.
Another thing the organizers would like to know is the unique selling point od the business, that is, the quality that makes the business stand out, and the problems it solves. Defined plans that the entrepreneur has for the business within a year is another category in the online form that has to be filled.
As a competitive initiative, interested applicants need to bring their all as the stakes are very high. The organizers are not looking for shabby businesses without a clear-cut goal or a driven mindset as the number of applications is high. And as the Group Head W Initiative, Ayona Trimnell stated,
“Last year, we got a tremendous amount of applications with innovative business ideas. This year, we want to do more and we want to reach out to more female entrepreneurs not just in Nigeria but across Africa.”
After the online application, what’s next?
500 applicants would be selected from the online application, after which they are required to send in a 60 seconds video pitch which will be screened by a credible panel of business experts to select 50 finalists.
The 50 finalists will pitch their businesses with all they have learnt from the Mini-MBA session which would go on during the duration of the program and will stand a chance to win financial grants up to N5 million.
Benefits Of The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa 2020
This initiative is designed to be a 3-month period with intense pitching sessions as well as 8 weeks of mini-MBA training in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, IFC.
Shortlisted applicants stand a chance of winning up to 5 million naira financial grants, including the mini-MBA from IFC.
The applications for the Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa 2020 closes August 14, 2020. To apply for the program, click here.
