The RevUp Women Initiative Program is a unique enterprise development program that aims to empower women-led businesses in Africa with the skills, resources, and network they need to grow and scale their ventures. The program is an initiative of AfriLabs, a network of innovation hubs across Africa, sponsored by The Visa Foundation, a global philanthropic arm of Visa, and implemented by zixtechhub, a leading innovation hub in Cameroon.
The program is currently being implemented in 10 African countries and each country has selected 50 women-led businesses to participate in a 2-month intensive training that covers topics such as business model validation, customer discovery, product development, financial management, marketing, branding, pitching, and fundraising.
At the end of the training, 10 women-led businesses will be selected to receive a $10,000 grant each through Catalytic Africa, a platform that connects African entrepreneurs with investors and mentors. The grant will help the selected businesses to scale up their operations and impact.
The first pilot phase session of the program was launched in Yaounde in August 2023. The session brought together 50 women entrepreneurs from various sectors such as agriculture, education, health, fashion, beauty, and technology. The session was facilitated by 7 experts from different fields and supported by 21 mentors who provided guidance and feedback to the participants throughout the program.
As part of the Revup Women program, IRebuild Africa facilitated a peer-to-peer session where the participants shared and discussed their perspectives on various aspects of their businesses, such as customer service, scalability and growth strategies. The session was a valuable opportunity for the participants to learn from each other and to challenge themselves to improve their business practices and outcomes.
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