On August 6th, women-led B2B Enterprise Development Agency, ScaleUp Africa, will virtually host its inaugural Pan-African Business Festival coined IGNITE.

The festival is poised to nurture closer economic ties and opportunities for youth and women-led businesses in Africa and across the global stage. The digital experience is set to provide practical resources for entrepreneurs of African descent, globally.

The festival programmes are geared toward entrepreneurs with an interest in doing business in Africa and will support them with accessing new markets across Africa, the USA, the Caribbean and Europe. The event will offer attendees five Curated Sector Segments.

ScaleUp Africa will work with corporations to connect entrepreneurs to the networks and organizational partners needed to scale their solutions. Network connections will include professional advisors and partners to help overcome barriers that prohibit their growth.

By 2050, Africa will account for 50% of the world's population, with half of its population under 25. To say Africa is the future is an understatement. Population growth yields market potential and a major opportunity for SMEs, as African markets will need the jobs, services and general economic growth SMEs will provide. Africa accounts for a fraction of global trade, however, most black business owners perform below par in comparison to their non-black counterparts due to factors like limited access to funding, business resources and mentor guidance.

"We are keen to connect big businesses with SMEs in our community. For example, if a large international Fast-Moving Consumable Goods company signs up to one of ScaleUp Africa's programmes, they will bring their extensive experience of operations from around the world and they would share their knowledge with our entrepreneurs and potentially commit to ways of integrating more Small Businesses into their global supply chains," shared Amma Gyampo.

Starting ScaleUp Africa
Co-founded by Enterprise Advisor and Non-Executive Director, Amma Gyampo and Olivia Asiedu Ntow, a branding, communications and talent advisor, ScaleUp Africa is on a mission to nurture closer ties between African and Black-owned businesses for positive, long term economic legacy.

ScaleUp Africa offers SME GROWTH Services, Acceleration, SME Ecosystem Building and Fundraising, Corporate Innovation/Enterprise Services: helping organisations implement and achieve their CSR, ESG, Diversity, Talent and SME Support goals, Training, Events and Consulting Services to do with Economic Empowerment, Gender Lens Enterprise Support, Impact, Capacity Building, Innovation, Digital and Social projects.

ScaleUp Africa will also roll out an Innovative Media Content Strategy to disseminate African and Black storytelling and case studies to create entrepreneurship education content for women and youth of African Descent, globally.

"We're very excited by this pillar of our offering because we know the power of media and the urgency required to turn around the performance and contribution of our entrepreneurs to the economic development of this segment of the population," shared Amma Gyampo.

The pair was introduced through a mutual friend and after comparing notes on their respective work, they realised the power in their synergy, which birthed ScaleUp Africa. During the onset of COVID 19, The ScaleUp team produced webinars called The Survival Series to help the SME Community navigate through the shock of the pandemic.

In conjunction with IGNITE, ScaleUp Africa will launch a crowdfunding campaign for ventures led by women and youth of African descent, to improve funding access. All interested contributors can connect through the ScaleUp Africa website. Throughout July, ScaleUp Africa will announce the Pan-African Business Festival Partners and Speakers. Individuals and companies can register at ScaleUp Africa.

About ScaleUp Africa
ScaleUp Africa is a Women-led B2B Enterprise Development Agency offering professional services to Foundations, Corporations and established SMEs to solve sustainable development challenges through entrepreneurship programmes.

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