South Africa
This programme supports women-led businesses based in South Africa address barriers to accessing finance, build leadership confidence & buy-in, and close financial deals.
Key benefits:
- Address barriers to accessing finance with practical tools
Learn how to implement critical business practices that will plug gaps impeding ability to access finance
- Enhance your power skills
Learn how to build leadership confidence through crafting and communicating powerful storytelling and pitching techniques, initiative-taking and using values to shape behaviours.
- Access Finance
Businesses that successfully complete the learning journey will be linked to relevant financial providers.
- Networking and Peer Learning
Businesses in the programme will receive access to peer learning and collaboration to work through challenges and encourage you to keep driving toward your ultimate goal.
START DATE
October 2022
DURATION
4 Months
FORMAT
Virtual facilitator led training
PROGRAMME FEE
Full scholarship to qualifying applicants/businesses
APPLICATION DEADLINE
October 10, 2022
AMI challenged me to be more innovative, and as a result, I was able to identify new business opportunities
Lesengkeng Foods, South Africa
Eligibility
This Programme is for:
- Women-led businesses in South Africa experiencing challenges in accessing finance
- The main participant and applicant must be the CEO, Managing Director, Owner, or Founder of the business and must be an active participant in the programme
Revenue Profile:
Generated annual revenue of R500,000 – R5,000,000 in the last financial year
Years In Business:
Operational for more than 2 years
Internet Enabled:
Willing to work online – i.e. Must have a smartphone/Internet connection to access online tools, courses and online community
Performance/ Data-oriented:
Willing to share performance/financial data as part of finance linkage
EXPRESS INTEREST FOR THE EMERGE PROGRAMME
We are excited to get you started on your application to this programme:
About the Learning Journey
The programme learning journey focuses on taking your business through 4 key phases of your journey over a 4 month period. Each stage is approximately 3-4 weeks long. You'll be supported by key AMI staff during this period including the Programme Facilitator and a dedicated AMI Programme & Learning Manager.
Overview: This phase is designed to explore what finance providers look for when deciding if they will provide finance. It also focuses on the challenges entrepreneurs face in accessing finance. This phase will help you review your organisational risks to identify business practices and key tools to address those risks.
Objectives:
- Explore what finance providers look for when deciding to provide finance to a business
- Understand the reasons why people do not access finance
- Assess your business against core criteria for funding
- Addressing some of the key barriers to accessing finance with practical tools
Overview: This phase is designed to focus on accessing finance for . It will look at the different financing options available for businesses, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and what the requirements would be to access finance for the business.
Objectives:
- Understand the different categories of finance available for businesses
- Review the pros and cons of different types of finance available in the market – including the specific landscape of finance products available to you
- Practice pitching for finance and look at the reasons many businesses are not successful
- Prepare for access to the finance process – and dig into the ‘Preparing to Access Finance for your Business’ tool
Overview: This phase is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the importance of storytelling and speaking up in their professional and personal lives. It looks at how to craft stories that can communicate powerful messages about leadership, initiative-taking and how values should shape our behaviours. The phase also builds people’s confidence in speaking up and sharing their stories.
Objectives:
- Help participants identify when to speak up and how to talk about what’s important
- Learn how to use storytelling to help people understand why certain things are important and what should be done
- Gain confidence and courage in speaking up, especially when we feel things aren’t right or when we need to lead with confidence and courage
Overview: Businesses that successfully complete the 3 learning phases above will be linked to financial providers.
About the Partnerships
About AMI and ANDE- South Africa Partnership
With support from USAID, African Management Institute (AMI) and Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)- South Africa have partnered to offer this programme to benefit women-led SGBs in a comprehensive and collaboratively designed solution to mitigate the systemic gender inequity in SGB Finance. The ultimate goal of this programme is to increase rates of women-led businesses accessing finance in South Africa.