Funding women-led social and economic enterprises in Africa
The African Development Bank - Africa’s Premier Development Finance Institution, has established the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative to specifically address the issue of funding Women led social & economic enterprises in Africa. AFAWA aims to close the $42 billion financing gap for women entrepreneurs in Africa, unlock their entrepreneurial capacity, economic participation, and achieve maximum development impact through three (3) pillars: (i) Access to Finance for women entrepreneurs, (ii) Capacity Building to Financial Institutions and Women Small Medium Enterprises (WSMEs), and (iii) Ensuring an Enabling Environment for women entrepreneurs to strive.
Ms. Kamikazi will be discussing with us the work of AfDB as well as her own investment vehicle in hopes to provide more and required support to women entrepreneurs in Africa.
Our facilitator
Cynthia L. Kamikazi is the Chief – Partnerships Officer in the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) leads the cooperation, policy dialogue, and resource mobilization efforts for the Bank’s gender agenda. She has successfully developed innovative strategies that led to successes such as the raising of more than $400Million for the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) program. In Addition, Ms. Kamikazi’s passion for and commitment to development and Human Rights issues led her to found ShEmpowers, an investment company by women, for women owned, led and sourced businesses. Ms. Kamikazi holds a master’s degree in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex in Colchester, UK and bachelor’s degrees in Psychology, Business Management & French Literature from Luther College, US.