As part of Access Bank’s commitment to empower female entrepreneurs with financial and business skills, Access Bank Ghana has launched the fourth edition of its Womenpreneur Pitch a-ton Africa competition under the theme ‘Empowering Women for Global Impact’.
Unlike previous seasons that opened participation to women entrepreneurs across
Africa, this edition will for the first time be run in Ghana for women
entrepreneurs in the country.
The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa has been designed to provide female owned
businesses, an opportunity to access finance, world-class business trainings as
well as mentoring opportunities. The initiative is running concurrently across
nine other African countries where Access Bank has presence.
Set to run for five months, the competition begins with a call for applications
from today, 1st September 2022 and is in partnership with GIZ, Scaleup Africa,
Innohub, Oze App and Sheeltech.
Speaking in an interview ahead of the launch, Managing Director of Access Bank
Ghana Plc., Olumide Olatunji said Access Bank will continue to advance the
cause of women in Ghana through world class programmes that would empower them
holistically. “As part of our vision to become the world’s most respected
African Bank, we continue to empower key sectors of our nation’s economy. A
sector that contributes over 70% towards Ghana’s GDP is SMEs thus supporting them
to continuously impact the nation should be a welcoming news to everyone.
Womenpreneur Pitch-a-Ton Africa is about the economic empowerment of
women and I am excited about the opportunities we are offering Ghanaian women
entrepreneurs”, Olumide explained.
Throwing light on the dynamics of the 2022 edition, Pearl Nkrumah, Executive
Director for Retail and Digital Banking said the Womenpreneur Pitch-a -ton is a
great opportunity for women entrepreneurs in the country to be exposed to world
class training in entrepreneurship. She noted that a call for applications has
been opened on the Access Bank Ghana website on
https://www.ghana.accessbankplc.com to allow women entrepreneurs between the
ages of 18 and 45 years, who have run their businesses for at least a year, and
have full ownership or own at least 50% share of the businesses to apply.
According to Pearl, 300 businesses that meet the criteria will proceed to pitch
their business ideas to an independent assessing Organization.
Touching on awards for the competition, Pearl further explained that the top 50
women who are finally selected from the 300, will be enrolled in an
International Finance Corporation (IFC) mini-MBA course and receive business
coaching.
“Our top ten finalists will receive a share of GHS300,000 in cash prizes and
personal accident cover and free website design among others”, she revealed.
Access Bank Ghana has been a leading advocate for women’s economic empowerment
in Ghana through its ‘W’ Initiative which provides support to women
particularly in the areas of financing, capacity building and creating
networking opportunities. The Bank continues to build solid long-term
relationships with customers based on trust, digital innovations, good customer
service and transparency. Over the years, Access Bank has developed a deep
understanding of its customers, delivering excellent services and empowering
them to achieve more through financial education.
Source: Peacefmonline