She Leads Africa, a social enterprise empowering women entrepreneurs has announced the launch of a business pitch competition exclusively for female entrepreneurs, which will give the most promising female entrepreneurs in West Africa a platform to connect to prominent mentors, business funding and new market opportunities.

In a statement to TechMoran lead organiser Afua Osei said, “Female entrepreneurs are unfortunately missing from the conversation around Africa’s growth story but the continent will not be able to reach its full potential without the full economic participation of women.”She Leads Africa aims to addresses this challenge head on with a series of programs to help female entrepreneurs gain business fundamentals, connect to an active business network, and increase their access to financing.Set for September, the pitch competition will identify the top 10 talented female entrepreneurs who have founded or co-founded early stage startups in West Africa.

The 10 will be selected by professionals in the consulting, venture capital, and finance industry based on the strength of the idea, ability to scale, understanding of the market, and quality of the management team. With special consideration to entrepreneurs in tech, finalists will be paired with mentors to help advance their businesses.

The entrepreneurs will be brought to Lagos to pitch their businesses to a panel of notable business personalities includingHakeem Belo-Osagie Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria; and Ngozi Edozien, CEO InVivo Partners; and Bola Adesola, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank among others for a $10,000 cash first place prize, one-on-one meetings with venture capitalists, legal advice from a premier law firm, free business lines and internet packages for a year, tablets, SME accounting software and more.

The Pitch Competition is supported by sponsors Etisalat, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, FSDH Capital, Start Smart Ghana and media partners Genevieve Magazine, Tech Cabal, Venture Burn, and Bella Naija.
Applications for entrepreneurs open June 23^rd and will close July 30^th 2014. For more information please visit: www.SheLeadsAfrica.org or email: info (at) sheleadsafrica.org.

 

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