6th growth accelerator entrepreneurship challenge launched

Malawi: Growth Accelerator Malawi, an initiative launched in 2018 by various partners in the country, launched its 6th growth accelerator entrepreneurship challenge on Thursday, September 15, 2022, with the goal of selecting a cohort of ambitious and innovative entrepreneurs and assisting them in accessing technical, co-financing, and mentorship support to help their businesses grow, writes Winnie Luwembe.

According to Mr Blessings Chavula, the growth accelerator team leader, 62 entrepreneurs from the previous 5 rounds have benefited from the challenge since its inception.

"Growth accelerator was designed to go beyond funding but also provision of technical assistance in terms of pieces of training, mentorship, to enable entrepreneurs to make right decisions, compete on the market, how to best serve customers, and so on. Of the 62 beneficiaries, 28% are women and 32% are youth," he said.

The primary goal of the Growth Accelerator Entrepreneurship Challenge is to accelerate the growth of early-stage, innovative, impactful, and ambitious entrepreneurs, with a focus on impact investing for long-term enterprise development.

The initiative provides entrepreneurs with 40,000 USD in funding to help them accelerate their businesses.

Chavula stated, "For one to stand a chance of benefiting from these funds, one should be in a regal business, in business for two years, his/her business should be registered, up to 40 years of age or below, and it is open for all kinds of businesses."

Apex Medical Laboratories is one of the beneficiaries of the first cohort of the growth accelerator entrepreneurship challenge, and according to Kundai Moyo, co-founder of Apex, this initiative has helped this business grow despite various challenges such as fuel shortages, currency fluctuations, and other economic challenges the country is facing.

"It has been difficult to run the business because of the business environment we are in," she said, "but through growth accelerator, we have learned issues of resilience and that has helped us to progress and I am happy to say so far we have managed to employ four graduates from the Malawi College of Medicine."

Applications for the Growth Accelerator Entrepreneurship Challenge are open until mid-October 2022.