Unlike previous seasons that opened participation to women entrepreneurs across Africa, this edition will for the first time be run in Ghana for women entrepreneurs in the country.

The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa has been designed to provide female owned businesses, an opportunity to access finance, world-class business trainings as well as mentoring opportunities.

The initiative is running concurrently across nine other African countries where Access Bank has presence.

Set to run for five months, the competition begins with a call for applications from today, September 1, 2022 and is in partnership with GIZ, Scaleup Africa, Innohub, Oze App and Sheeltech.

Speaking in an interview at the launch, Managing Director of Access Bank Ghana Plc., OlumideOlatunji said Access Bank would continue to advance the cause of women in Ghana through world class programmes that would empower them holistically.

“As part of our vision to become the world’s most respected African bank, we continue to empower key sectors of our nation’s economy. A sector that contributes over 70 per cent towards Ghana’s GDP is SMEs thus supporting them to continuously impact the nation should be a welcoming news to everyone.  Womenpreneur Pitch-a-Ton Africa is about the economic empowerment of women and I am excited about the opportunities we are offering Ghanaian women entrepreneurs,” MrOlumide explained.

Throwing light on the dynamics of the 2022 edition, Pearl Nkrumah, Executive Director for Retail and Digital Banking, said the Womenpreneur Pitch-a -ton is a great opportunity for women entrepreneurs in the country to be exposed to world class training in entrepreneurship.

She noted that a call for applications has been opened on the Access Bank Ghana website on https://www.ghana.accessbankplc.com to allow women entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 45 years, who have run their businesses for at least a year, and have full ownership or own at least 50 per cent share of the businesses to apply.

According to her, 300 businesses that meet the criteria will proceed to pitch their business ideas to an independent assessing organisation.

Touching on awards for the competition, she explained that the top 50 women who are finally selected from the 300, would be enrolled in an International Finance Corporation (IFC) mini-MBA course and receive business coaching.

“Our top 10 finalists will receive a share of GH¢300,000 in cash prizes and personal accident cover and free website design among others,” she revealed.