The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has announced the launch of a regional campaign to popularise a platform for women in business known as 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWSP). The platform is an information and networking hub for women which provides a one-stop shop for them to start, grow and scale up their businesses and to access financial and non-financial services.
The campaign named ‘30 days of women in business’ will run on radio and social media channels over the next one month, and aims to promote the platform in Comoros, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Eswatini, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – the Member States where COMESA is implementing the 50 Million African Women Speak Project.
The campaign invites women in the region to log onto the Women Connect platform, or to download the 50MAWSP app from the Google or Apple stores. To participate, women will be required to register on the platform and then submit short stories about their most admired businesswomen giving the reasons why, and what they would tell them if they had a chance to meet them in person. The most compelling of these submissions will be published on the platform and those who submitted them may have an opportunity to meet their role models.
The 50MAWS platform is jointly implemented by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and enables women in 38 countries in the three regional blocs to find information on how to run businesses, where to access financial services, how to create business opportunities online and where to access training resources, among others.
The COMESA Secretary General, Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe sees the campaign as a great step in driving awareness about the platform which allows African women to engage in peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and knowledge sharing.
“I view this campaign as a catalyst in creating the much-needed push to bring more of our women to connect, network and ultimately benefit from this platform. The campaign’s appeal for women to identify and celebrate their most admired women entrepreneurs speaks to a key facet of the 50 Million African Women Speak initiative, which is facilitating support and mentorship by women for women,” Ms. Kapwepwe said.
She added: “The coincidence of the launch of this campaign with the upcoming celebration of the International Women’s Day on 8 March provides a special way for women to celebrate their social, economic, cultural and political achievements in our region.”
The ‘30 days of women in business’ campaign aims to promote the 50 Million African Women Speak platform (50MAWSP) in COMESA Member States by inviting women in the region to share their stories and experiences online. The most compelling of these submissions will be published on the platform and those who submitted them may have an opportunity to meet their role models.
The 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWS) digital platform is a practical initiative to empower millions of women in Africa to start, grow, and scale-up businesses by providing a one-stop-shop for their specific information needs. Available via web and on mobile devices as an app, the platform facilitates a dynamic exchange of ideas among women entrepreneurs using in-built social media functionality to connect them with one another in ways that foster peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, sharing of knowledge and enabling access to financial services and market opportunities between urban and rural areas, and beyond borders. The platform covers 38 countries in the COMESA, ECOWAS and EAC blocs and is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
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