GrowthAfrica has rolled out the acceleration programme for 2019, which will be focusing on startups and entrepreneurs in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zambia.
Applications for the 2019 GrowthAfrica Business Scaleup Accelerator Programme are already open and GrowthAfrica says each country will be represented by 15 entrepreneurs.
“We will for each country select 15 ambitious, committed entrepreneurs with high potential to grow and create significant impact with a focus on high impact employment and income generating opportunities,” reads an official statement.
The GrowthAfrica Acceleration Programme is designed to help entrepreneurs scale their ventures and make their businesses investment ready.
In order to help entrepreneurs develop leadership skills to unlock significant growth in their businesses, the Programme walks them through in financial modeling, offers investment support and mentors them.
For you to apply for the GrowthAfrica Acceleration Programme, you should be ready to scale your business, have a turnover of a minimum of US$50,000.
Your business should have existed for 2 years or more, the founding team should be fully dedicated and you should be open to raising external investment as part of your growth strategy.
All sectors are free to apply but GrowthAfrica says the priority is given to Agribusiness, education, IT/mobile solutions, Financial services and Fintech, renewable energy, health manufacturing/processing, and retail/e-commerce.
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How the Programme runs
The programme’s first phase consists of 18 workshop days spread over a 6 months’ period.
It kicks off with a 5-day visioning Bootcamp and then subsequently five 2-days workshops where GrowthAfrica establishes the foundation and equips a startup with tools to diagnose its business and devise strategies to optimize the business in all conceivable areas.
This part is concluded with a 3-day actioning Bootcamp where businesses come up with an implementation action plan for their 3-year vision.
After each workshop, an entrepreneur will work in-company with the assistance of external business experts, GrowthAfrica growth catalysts and financial modelers.
The second phase of the programme involves 24 months of one-on-one support from the GrowthAfrica team, a pool of external business leaders and support by GrowthAfrica’s investment facilitation team.
One of the previous beneficiaries from the Programme, Moses Musiwa, Co-founder of Goat n’ Chips, says: “Goat n’ Chips has greatly benefited from GrowthAfrica. We have made significant enhancements to our supply chain management, operations, customer service, and financial & human resource management functions. The result is greater customer satisfaction and retention and better financial performance.”
Applications for 2019 GrowthAfrica Acceleration Programme opened on October 17 and they’ll end on December 16, 2018. The Programme will kick off in May 2019 and phase 1 will end on September 2019.
For more details and how to apply click here
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