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It is a great time to be an African, to be a woman and to be young. And if you’re a young African woman, then you have a triple advantage and a platform to propel yourself to great heights. The problem with platitudes about moments like these though, is that we can get so caught up in the excitement of the moment and fail to have a strategy to marshall the resources into actual action.
I have heard it said time and again that our model is far from becoming the ‘build it and they will come’ that more sophisticated economies have mastered. Because our structures still have a long way to go, it is important to put in some work into identifying what the best path for each person is, and concertedly working on it.
Call to action
I doubt anyone could have missed the two days of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit last week, and the accompanying call to action for women. Catapulted into the forefront of change, the message was consistent across all fronts - the women agenda cannot be ignored, and even though it is starting to sound like rhetoric, it remains relevant for a successful continent, a thriving country. But what are the highlights of the summit and how do these relate to women who want to make an impact?
Mentoring and e-learning
Multiple platforms to enable the growth of business platforms have been created with support structures such as e-learning, mentoring, free courses and networking on a global scale. This kind of support ensures that there is the opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of other entrepreneurs and shorten the learning curve. Life skills and business skills are also being woven into the existing initiatives to ensure more experiential learning as opposed to just theory.
Acceleration
Accelerations are important to early stage start-up businesses and act as catalysts for growth, bridging the gap between starting and scaling up. Innovative and fast evolving industries are a natural target for these partnerships as different agencies seek to collaborate and create communities. Accelerators are focused at different sectors such as artisan businesses, awareness and marketing campaigns and social media based initiatives.
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