Deadline: March 20, 2025
Applications are open for the BIC Africa Acceleration Programme 2025. The fifth edition of the BIC Africa Acceleration Programme for Women Entrepreneurs will support 30 women entrepreneurs in total, including 20 from the country projects Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Somalia and 10 others from other Sub-Saharan African countries willing to scale their businesses, while contributing to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The programme will run from April to July 2025, and it will focus on established post-revenue women entrepreneurs with a registered business and an operational team, across all sectors and business types through a combination of online training modules, group coaching sessions, individual exercises, and networking sessions with women experts from Africa and Europe with relevant experience in supporting innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups. One-on-one mentoring sessions will be offered to a limited number of participants.
The core programme will include:
- 6 online interactive training modules (each lasting 1.5 hours), on topics such as Mission; Unique Value Proposition and Product Development; Business Model; Team & Partnerships; Finance; Marketing.
- 4 online group coaching sessions (each lasting 1.5 hours), on topics such as Leadership and influencing skills; Mastering personal and business finances; Storytelling and pitch training; Time management and prioritisation.
- 2 Networking sessions (at the beginning and at the end of the programme)
- Access to support documents and recordings of the sessions
- Integration in the BIC Africa Community of women entrepreneurs, with visibility on the BIC Africa website, integration into the LinkedIn group for this Community, as well as access to other networking and market linkage opportunities and events.
Benefits
The BIC Africa Acceleration Programme is aimed at helping the 30 participants:
- Explore growth and scaling trajectories for their businesses and solutions.
- Assess the team competencies and consider how their business model will adapt to the growth phase.
- Articulate the social value proposition, identifying why and how the proposed solution contributes to SDGs.
- Gain access to appropriate sectorial, local, and international experts.
- Join a vibrant community of women entrepreneurs, to learn, exchange and connect.
- Connect with BIC Africa and the European Business Innovation Centre Network (EBN) to unleash the impact of women entrepreneurs.
Eligibility
The preferred candidate should be:
- Be a woman (minimum age of 18-years-old) founder/owner of already established business with an operational team and a strong development potential.
- Be available between April and July 2025 to participate in the Programme with maximum 2 hours per week for online sessions + time to work individually and reflect upon the learnings.
- Already running a start-up or company (it must be registered since at least 1 year) and seeking to scale up.
- Demonstrate commitment to actively participate in all the activities of the Acceleration Programme and assisting future developments of the programme.
- Have access to reliable internet connection.
- Have a good working knowledge of English language.
Application
You should:
- Fill in the questions in the form on general information on the applicant and the business.
- Prepare and Upload a Pitch Deck
- Prepare your CV
For more information, visit BIC Africa Acceleration Programme.
