Africa’s richest woman and founder of Flourish Africa, Folorunso Alakija, has announced the launch of a ₦1billion fund to promote female-owned businesses in Africa.
Flourish Africa is a female empowerment platform designed to help women achieve their full potential.
In a statement, Alakija said the initiative would focus on supporting the entrepreneurial activities of at least 2,500 female-owned businesses through funding and structured training for over five years.
She said: “I’m happy to launch the Flourish Africa ₦1billion fund on my 70th birthday as a gift to hardworking and enterprising women. This initiative will focus on empowering women economically and socially for the benefit of their immediate families and the society.”
She explained that a minimum of 500 female micro-entrepreneurs would be trained yearly.
After the training, 100 entrepreneurs from the pool will be able to access grants to the tune of N2 million each for their businesses from a yearly fund of N200 million.
She looks forward to empowering one woman at a time as she strongly believes that women are a crucial part of Africa’s development.
She restated her commitment to empowering as many women as possible in Africa as one of the things she would want to be remembered for.
Alakija added that the main objective of Flourish Africa is to create an enabling platform that provides skill development, mentoring, access to the marketplace for female entrepreneurs.
“Many women have the potential to be great. If we form a community of like-minded individuals who share a common goal and purpose, we can pool together and make an impact in every community we find ourselves in and ultimately flourish,” she said.
