Regional entrepreneurs in big win with $1b deals for youth, women

East African countries are expecting to receive billions of dollars’ worth of investments from trade agreements announced by both the United States government and various multinationals at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES2015) in Nairobi.

Private sector companies pledged nearly $700 million in capital to the next generation of entrepreneurs and already more than 20 entrepreneurs from the region will benefit from the $13 million commitments that venture capitalist firm Village Capital has pledged.

Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia are also set to benefit from the General Electric (GE) Africa collaboration with the US African Development Foundation (USADF) and the US Agency for International Development (USAid), after the two announced the expansion of Round III of the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge that will see entrepreneurs and energy companies from three countries join Kenya and Tanzania in getting grants of up to $900,000.

While addressing the GES in Nairobi on Saturday, US President Barack Obama announced that they have received more than $1 billion that will go towards funding entrepreneurs across the world, East Africa included.

“I am proud to announce that we have secured this money, which will be used by entrepreneurs as startup capital, with half of this amount going towards women entrepreneurs,” President Obama said.

East Africa is also set to benefit from the establishment of the GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute that will serve the wider East African region. The institute will be the first dedicated healthcare skills advancement centre in Africa.

Farid Fezoua, president of GE Healthcare Africa, said that the centre will initially offer biomedical and clinical applications training courses and will be inaugurated in Nairobi in the last quarter of 2015.

“Over the longer term, it will be expanded to offer leadership, technical and clinical education courses, working with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, private healthcare providers and other educational partners, with the goal of training over 1,000 healthcare professionals over the next three years,” said Mr Fezoua.

“I am pleased to announce that Nairobi will later this year host a global women entrepreneurship centre,” President Obama said. This is one of three centres to be based in Africa. Zambia will host the Southern Africa centre while the West African centre will be based in Mali.

The US Department of State’s Africa Women Entrepreneurship Programme will fund the three Women’s Entrepreneurship Centres of Resources, Education, Access and Training for Economic Empowerment (WECREATE), which are expected to create more than 7,000 new jobs and over 600 certified female mentors by October next year.

Women were also big winners after the US president announced that half of the $1 billion investments in entrepreneurship will go towards women and youth.

Kenya’s Equity Bank Group will also receive up to $200 million from the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) that will see it lend $450 million in foreign currency, with a focus on youth and women, to small and medium enterprises over the next five years. The bank operates in East Africa and this means that this facility will benefit entrepreneurs throughout the region.

Financial institutions supporting women-owned small and medium enterprises worldwide will also benefit from a $100 million grant that will be financed through the International Finance Corporation’s Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility.

The US also announced a two year, $50 million pilot programme that will support smaller earlier-stage companies that generate positive social impact. The first three commitments under this programme support companies that focus on expanding their operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Entrepreneurs from sub-Saharan Africa will also benefit from the $25 million Loan Portfolio Guarantee offered by USAid to support Deutsche Bank’s newly launched $50 million Essential Capital Consortium Fund, a debt fund focused on lending to social enterprises targeting the financial services, energy and health sectors around the world.

Marginalised youths in Kenya and Uganda will be among 25,000 young Africans who will benefit from the $4.5 million pledge by the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation that will see a new youth empowerment initiative provide life skills training, business skills training and access to employment and mentoring.

The Youth Empowered for Success (YES!) programme will empower marginalised youth in six African countries including South Africa, Nigeria and Liberia.

The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) also launched the GEN Kenya programme that committed $100 million to support entrepreneurs and the development of their local ecosystems. Regional entrepreneurs will also benefit from the Mara Foundation pledge of empowering one million youth and women entrepreneurs in East Africa through the Mara Mentor Platform.

“We will offer free courses, mentoring, e-learning, business financing through Mara Ad-Venture Investments, networking and internship opportunities, with the goal of enabling and inspiring women and youth to grow successful businesses globally,” said Mara chief executive officer Ashish Thakkar.