Life-Changing Program Empowers African Business Women
According to the World Bank, Africa is the only continent where more women than men decide to start their own businesses. Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest proportion of female entrepreneurs in the world (26% of adult females engage in entrepreneurial activities, with more than 40% managing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises).
Our mission is to increase the leadership and management capacity of African women entrepreneurs to build resilient businesses.
Identifying the Opportunity Gaps for Female Founders
AWEC was founded in the summer of 2017 as a direct result of feedback from hundreds of African entrepreneurs who took part in pilot online courses that formed the foundation of our innovative blended learning model.
Traditional, short-term, and place-based accelerators that tended to favor male entrepreneurs were not serving the needs of the millions of women entrepreneurs across Africa. Instead, these women sought:
Equity
More equal access to long-term business management learning
Mentorship
Business mentorship from senior professionals and a strong network of their peers
Practicality
Practical lessons that could be applied to their businesses immediately
Flexibility
Programming that fit the realities of their lives
Empowering Women to Supercharge Their Future
We believe that the time has come for a new approach to accelerate women-led businesses across Africa.
UNESCO notes that It is a smart business practice as well as a moral obligation to support women in digital entrepreneurship.
AWEC fosters knowledge and business growth through applied learning, community building, and a digital-first approach.Our curriculum is intentionally designed for women entrepreneurs on the African continent and supports them as they build resilient businesses.
We only accept applications for a short time, once a year. Sign up to subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know when our annual application goes live.
The Center for Global Enterprise
AWEC is a program operated through the Center for Global Enterprise (CGE). CGE is a nonprofit research institution devoted to the study of global management best practices, the contemporary corporation, and their impact on society.
In 2015, the CGE launched its Global Scholars programs, an innovative approach to collaborative and applied online learning in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and Goldman Sachs Foundation. Learnings from these experiences formed the foundation upon which AWEC was built.