Women entrepreneurs in Kenya have a reason to smile after American enterprise agency, US African Development Foundation (USADF) pledged Sh1 billion in seed funding.
The initiative which falls under the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) is in support of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP) fueled by the White House.
Its aim is to ensure that 50 million women from developing countries are economically empowered by 2025. Hitherto, AWE has spread its wings in 26 countries since its launch in 2019.
President Donald Trump’s advisor, her daughter Ivanka Trump opined that the funding under W-GDP is a holistic approach by the US government in economically empowering women and stirring collaboration and future programmes and partnerships geared towards elevating the status of women in developing countries.
“I am proud to see the State
Department and US Africa Development Foundation partner together to expand the
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) in support of W-GDP.
“W-GDP is focused on scaling programs that will have maximum
impact for women and communities around the world,” she stated as quoted by
Business Daily.
Under AWE, women from developing countries will learn more on the sustainable business models through mentoring, creation of sound business plans, networking and lessons on how to raise capital for expansion of ventures in future.
Besides Kenya, other African countries which will benefit from the funding include Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.