Group formed to mentor women entrepreneurs

The US State Department, the Global Entrepreneurship Network and two foundations have set up a venture exchange for women in Nairobi and Kampala.

The Women’s Venture Xchange-Africa created during the GES Youth + Women event, will support the women for a month in the two cities where they are expected to develop their business more rapidly through collaboration and access to a new entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The entrepreneurs will be supported by Mara Mentors, the GEN community and Case Foundation while in a host city.

Four women will get the first chance to build their businesses in the pilot programme which will be extended across Africa.

“I had access to these opportunities as an entrepreneur learning the ropes in East Africa and I want young entrepreneurs to have even more which enable them to build thriving businesses,” Ashish Thakkar, founder of Mara Group and the Mara Foundation said.

MENTORSHIP FOR WOMEN

The initiative will serve as an exchange and mentorship program for women, leveraging well-established networks in more than 35 countries to scale the program rapidly throughout the continent.

The Mara Mentors will also seek to mentor more than a million youth and women entrepreneurs in East Africa. The mentorship programme seeks to encourage sharing of ideas and knowledge between East African entrepreneurs and experienced professionals across the world.

Mara aims to empower one million youth and women entrepreneurs in the region by the year 2020 through mentorship and financing to enable them to create and grow successful businesses.

"For entrepreneurs at the start of their life, a real obstacle to growth is the fear of failure. The best way to overcome this fear is to access mentorship from real business experts who have gone through the same experiences.

We aim to help build the entrepreneurship ecosystem which consists of mentorship, access to finance and government policies," said Ashish Thakkar, founder of Mara Group and the Mara Foundation.