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Ghanaian women participate in African Women Entrepreneurship programme

Published date:
Tuesday, 04 October 2011

Two Ghanaian women entrepreneurs joined their counterparts from all over the world to participate in the African Women Entrepreneurship programme underway in the United States of America.

The three-week programme seeks to provide the African women entrepreneurs professional development training and networking opportunities with their American counterparts from civil society, corporations, industry associations, non-profit organisations, and business alliances.

A statement issued by the Public Affairs Section of United States Embassy in Accra on Tuesday said the people-to-people exchange followed the 2011 African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme Conference, held in Lusaka, Zambia in June, alongside the 2011 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Building on the fact that women are drivers of economic growth and prosperity, the International Visitor Leadership Programme at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs brought 40 women entrepreneurs from 36 African nations to the US for the Second African Women’s Entrepreneurship Exchange Programme (AWEP).

AWEP is a Department of State’s partnership among the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, Bureau of African Affairs, and Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs.

Other women participating in this current programme are from Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The statement said overall, this initiative sought to empower African women entrepreneurs by expanding opportunities for exports and US investment in Sub-Saharan Africa under AGOA.

Since its inception in 2010, the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme has empowered African small business owners and provided them the tools to export to the US under the terms of AGOA; increase their export capacities; strengthen public-private partnerships to reinforce programme goals to establish or expand business relationships with US partners.

Following the 2010 programme, ExxonMobil funded two follow-on trainings in Africa in partnership with Vital Voices.

Additionally, programme alumnae have established local chapters in several countries that strengthen economic ties and allow them to stay connected.

Recognizing and expanding the roles women play as advocates for strengthening national business climates for all women; and instituting follow-up programmes so that participants, in their role as community leaders, can impart to others what they learn.

Now in its 70th year, the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) is the US Department of State’s premier professional exchange programme, connecting current and emerging foreign leaders with their American counterparts through short-term programmes to build mutual understanding on foreign policy issues.

Nearly 200,000 distinguished individuals have participated in the programme, including more than 320 current and former Head of States and Government, and thousands of leaders from the public and private sectors.



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