The fifth edition of the BIC Africa Acceleration Program 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 program 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.
Thirty selected women entrepreneurs will benefit from a full online training course (6 modules); will participate in dedicated group coaching sessions (4 sessions) to deepen some of the topics addressed during the training; will participate in 2 networking sessions; will be introduced to the alumnae network of BIC Africa Women Acceleration program and gain access to other networking and market linkage opportunities and events.
Requirements
The preferred candidate should:
Be a woman (minimum age of 18 years old) founder/owner of an already established business with an operational team and a strong development potential.
Be available between April and July 2025 to participate in the program 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 for 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.
Eligibility criteria
In order to be eligible to apply and participate, applicants must meet the following criteria:
The applicant must be a woman founder/ CEO of a company (minimum age of 18 years old).
Note: The programme participation cannot be authorized for another team member, the owner or CEO should participate to ensure the knowledge and experience is supporting the company in the long-term.
The business must be already in existence (and registered) for more than 1 year and must have an operational team.
Based in Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Somalia being the main target countries with overall 20 seats available in the acceleration batch, out of 30)
Have a good working knowledge of English language (proved by the use of English in the application).
Benefits
The core program 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 prioritization.
2 Networking sessions (at the beginning and at the end of the program)
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.
The program will also open the door for further opportunities and awards:
A Certificate of recognition will be sent in an electronic format by EBN – BIC Africa project for those who completed the 12-week course acceleration program (attending at least 9 out of the 12 sessions).
Remote one-to-one Mentoring sessions will be offered to high performing participants selected by the BIC Africa expert committee, who as such will get the chance to be matched with one or two European incubation experts, who will accompany their growth trajectory. Further details will be shared at the start of the program.
Other Business Awards (e.g. additional support, highlighted visibility on BIC Africa website, an invitation to participate in a BIC Africa event etc.) will be available to high-performing participants selected by the BIC Africa expert committee.
