Call For Applications: African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative Cohort 8 (12-month leadership and business management capacity-building program)

The African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative is an innovative, 12-month leadership and business management capacity-building program that accepts 200 female entrepreneurs annually.

The deadline to apply is Sunday, 2 February 2025 at 11:59pm UTC. Please visit www.weareawec.org for more information.

To help you with your application, check out AWEC’s Entrepreneur Essentials. This short course is designed to help you improve your chances of filling out the application correctly and challenge you to evaluate and improve your business.

Remember…

• Be yourself: The application is designed to get to know you and your business. There are no right answers. We want to know the real, authentic you.
•  Be clear and concise: Read the question carefully. Answer THAT question and only that question. No need to use fancy buzzwords.
• Know your numbers: Revenue, employees, customers, capital – what data is the application asking for? This is not a place to make up numbers. If you need to approximate, do so via informed guesses.
• Don’t copy and paste from ChatGPT or the website: Please know that we are very familiar with the program you are applying for and scan the applications for plagiarism of ChatGPT. We want your responses in your own words!
• Proofread: There’s always room to improve a first draft! Did you fully answer each question? Did you answer the question being asked? Are there any glaring typos to correct?

Eligibility

• Female

• African country of origin, currently living on the continent or in the diaspora. For those living in the diaspora, your business must clearly impact Africa through the creation or delivery of its products or services, or based on where its customers reside.

• A for-profit business owner in operation of at least 2 years in any industry with at least 2 full-time or part-time employees. You must be the only one in your business applying. Founders of social enterprises are eligible to apply. Founders of NGOs or nonprofit organizations are not eligible.

• Access to a reliable internet connection with sufficient bandwidth for video calls over the 12-month period

• Professional working proficiency in English

• Comfortable with remote teamwork and collaboration, especially using digital tools

  AWEC admissions do not discriminate based on race, religion, age, disability, marital status, education, business revenue, industry or geographic location.

Entrepreneur Essentials 2.0

AWEC seeks to build diverse cohorts in which Fellows share some consistent characteristics:

• Resilience as individuals and entrepreneurs

• Commitment to building scalable and sustainable businesses

• Collaborative spirit

• Desire to build a pan-African peer network

• Empathetic leaders

• Self-starters

Think you are a good fit for AWEC? Prepare for the application by enrolling in Entrepreneur Essentials 2.0.