Village Capital and Norad launch climate-focused ecosystem-building programme in Africa.
Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa is an ecosystem-building program that aims to strengthen the capacity and impact of Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) and climate-focused startups in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. It was launched by Village Capital and Norad, the Norwegian development agency.
Since 2012, Village Capital has operated in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing services to entrepreneurs in 15 countries throughout the region through over 14 accelerator programs. In the meantime, Norad collaborates with international partners to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa initiative will take a two-pronged approach: first, it will provide community-led ESOs with the tools and resources they need to support sustainable growth within their organizations; second, it will actively assist climate-focused businesses in the priority countries and build a pipeline of high-growth, investable startups that are advancing solutions in vital domains like renewable energy, food security, the blue economy, and climate adaptation.
According to Rachel Crawford, special projects manager at Village Capital, “ESOs play a crucial role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, serving as the first line of support for entrepreneurs, acting as both trainer and convener of essential networks such as investors and talent, especially in emerging ecosystems.”
But these same ESOs often function like the businesses they fund, and they frequently lack the last component of the puzzle—funds to provide to startups straight. Village financing leverages enterprise assistance, ecosystem development, and catalytic financing to satisfy each of these three needs through our unique initiative design.
The director of climate and environment at Norad, Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo, expressed his organization’s excitement about collaborating with Village Capital on Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa.
Startups and entrepreneurs with creative products and services can make a significant contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. Due to a variety of obstacles, these actors frequently do not have access to funding and technical assistance today. We anticipate that some of these obstacles will be removed by bolstering the entrepreneurial ecosystem via ESOs,” he stated.
The fact that our cooperation is multi-sectoral and focuses on the blue economy, renewable energy, food security, and climate adaption in order to provide the best overall contribution to innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, is another exciting aspect for us.
Village Capital will host an information session especially for ESOs in the targeted nations to learn more about the program and discuss potential for engagement as an ESO. Detailed information about the program and its qualifying requirements will be covered at the session.
Contact Village Capital’s program manager, Ahmed Fadl, at [email protected] for more information about the program and to indicate your interest in attending the information session.
