SME Resilience & Youth Development Programs
Capacity Building For 10,000 Women-Led and Youth-Led Startups and MSMEs
- Women, Workforce Development and Digital Upskilling:
- ScaleUp Africa was part of Mastercard Foundation's locally led partnership consortia providing expertise in Youth Work, Women's Economic Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming support activities targeting peri-urban and rural women in hard-to-reach parts of Ghana and Francophone Africa Markets with program lead, MDF Global. Working with various community organizations to improve or offer alternative skills and livelihood options for women.
- Enabling women and youth entrepreneurs, associations, collectives and cooperatives to access grants, training, coaching and technical assistance with their ideation and growth stage needs.
- Impact: job-creation, shifting social and cultural norms, livelihood improvements, access to new digital skills and markets
- There is a growing demand on the global export market for creative goods come from artisans in the ‘Global South’ however the sector continues to Underperform due to fragmentation, quality and even gender-based social factors which limit incomes, profits and outcomes for the women
- In partnership with Woven, ScaleUp Africa supported 70 women with grants, technical and quality control training, business education – Improving their livelihoods through Woven’s online digital export platform for the North American market and the use of digital financial services.
This project improved the livelihoods of these women and strengthened the supply chain of Woven Worldwide.
GIZ Agribiz Project
Professionalising 14 National Women’s Groups And Associations With Over 1m Members
- Due to the socio-economic impact of the Pandemic, Climate Change and a challenging economy, many women are subjected to Sexual and Gender Based Violence, Health Problems and Poverty.. There is also a lack of effective nonprofits, cooperatives and community associations in terms of institutional effectiveness
- Role: Design, Implementation of Capacity Building, Training, Technical Assistance activities to improve the productivity of member based organisations. Grant-making to Groups to support the provision of basic productive assets, advice and programs
- ScaleUp Africa’s extensive network of female founders, advisors and Consultants were deployed to assist various groups and community associations to become more self reliant, effective and able to generate internal revenues.
- Providing group and individual coaching to enable the beneficiaries to build capacity, boost productivity and access credit facilities to better support the membership base of these mainly rural and women-based organisations. The majority of the Groups became self-sustaining after this.
100 African Women In AgriBusiness
Regenerative Agricultural Development and Food Processing Capacity Building
- African women make up almost 50% of the agricultural labour force in Africa making them the main producers of food. However they are often excluded from market access opportunities and profits along the value chain all exacerbated by climate change, post harvest losses, poor leadership in agricultural sector development / food systems, funding innovations, technical assistance and inputs
- ScaleUp Africa provided sponsorship for 2 cohorts of Ghanaian women for practical workforce development and training which covered practical food processing skills training, regenerative production, marketing, business and financial skills, food safety basics for what Agribusiness women need to know to sell their products more effectively.
- This was an opportunity to teach more women in Agriculture How to reduce post harvest losses, improve competitiveness and livelihoods.
- Many of the women were able to translate this training into additional Income generation.
ESOKO
Digital Agriculture Technology
Boosting Profits For Female-Led Micro Agribusinesses - Digital & Financial Literacy Tools
- During this programme with ESOKO, ScaleUp Africa trained almost 300 micro enterprises in the Agriculture sector on the full potential of the mobile phone. Due to low literacy rates, most agribusinesses are unable to access information pertaining to Climate, Market Pricing etc, limiting their productivity and profitability.
- Training content featured different mobile money, information, operational procedures and scenarios in the local language - enabling the women to leverage their mobile phones as a Business Tool for the first time.
- Access to digital credit services and market information like commodity prices were some important outcomes of the since most of these women. The project enabled them to make informed decisions about when, where and at what price to sell their commodities - using their mobile phone to access real time market price information from district and regional markets to increase their profits.
100 Women in Green Construction
- ScaleUp Africa mobilised and sponsored 100 female artisans across Ghana to upgrade their skills, provide alternative sources of income and the opportunity to learn about the emerging demand for Green Skills across the various trades.
- Our consultants were able to assist various artisan groups to support their female members to become more self reliant and generate more internal revenues.
100 Young Women In Leather Works
Alternative Livelihoods, Gender Safeguarding, Product Marketing and Business Basics Training
- Leatherworks if a male dominated field and this training was designed to provide highly practical and relevant for these seamstresses to diversify their skills and capacity to earn more to protect themselves from the impact of economic hardship such as abuse and violence.
- It was also designed to strengthen the leatherworks value chain through incorporating Diversity and technical capacity of a new generation of leatherwork artisans.
- These female beneficiaries are now earning more income, have access to a more diverse, male client base and are gearing up for follow up capacity building opportunities.
- ‘If you educate a man you educate an individual. If you educate a woman you educate a nation ' African Proverb
Reach For Change - Sweden
Knowledge Partnership
- In 2021, together with Global Utmaning, Reach For Change launched the Women Leaders Anthology - a collection of voices, data and insights on empowering female entrepreneurs and their importance in the transition towards sustainable societies. The authors of the anthology are social entrepreneurs, investors, civil society representatives and researchers.
- Chapter 2 co-authored by our CEO Sofia Breitholtz and ScaleUp Africa’s CEO Amma Gyampo, focuses on investing in women and social enterprises as a great catalyst for change.
- Despite the fact that Ghana and Africa have some of the highest rates of female participation in the SME sector in the world, women remain relatively ill-equipped to scale up their businesses to create much needed jobs and economic growth.
- ScaleUp Africa was invited to provide ecosystem outreach support - to curate a compelling mentorship programme and convene powerful, dynamic and successful business women from across Africa - to inspire a new generation of women to overcome societal and cultural barriers. This partnership supported thousands of underserved young women to access mentorship, share experiences, embrace innovation and new channels of growth for their businesses.
- Over 5500 virtual attendees to date from across Africa taking advantage of lessons on entrepreneurship, personal triumph and life coaching from an exciting community of African business leaders - curated and delivered by ScaleUp Africa.
"Circular Economy show"
TV 'edutainment' on Climate Action for Youth
Capacity Building For 10,000 Women-Led MSMEs
- Due to the socio-economic impact of the climate change, the European Union and the Government of Ghana developed this platform to educate and encourage Green Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Climate Adaptation in Ghana.
- ScaleUp Africa was onboarded to support identification and selection of the entrepreneurs (especially women) to be featured and supported. We have also collaborated with local organisations to train disadvantaged young women on practical waste management skills and opportunities.
- Concept: Televised Entrepreneurship Show on GhOne TV in Ghana: Cash Prize For winning Sustainable Green Business
- Role: Capacity Building / Coaching SMEs Reviewing applications, pitch videos Judging Panel & Evaluation
- In 2021, Reach for Change added members from Ethiopia and Ghana to their advisory board, including ScaleUp Africa’s CEO Amma Gyampo. In this role, the aim is to pursue the agenda of a more Connected Development, where the most dynamic Social Enterprises and Market Creating SMEs are supported by long term partnerships. Here, Amma advises this leading Social Enterprise Network and Accelerator on:
- Ecosystem Building, Social Procurement, Social Enterprise and Development, Sustainable Business Models, Gender and Youth Economic Development Strategy, Innovation and Tech, AgrTech, ESG, Creative Industry
Partnering for Change Events 2021, 2022, 2023
- Partnering for Change started as an initiative in 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden to gather doers and thinkers from different sectors to discuss and share insights and inspiration about how to work together to solve pressing social issues.
- On March 28th 2023, together with the BMW Foundation, Reach for Change, ScaleUp Africa and the global team gathered over 75 local and international partners, social innovators, business leaders, investors, and development partners in Ghana.
- The dialogue focused on catalysing the work of local social entrepreneurs for job creation and on using cross-sector partnerships to boost Ghana’s startup and impact ecosystem.
Vodafone -UK
F-LANE Accelerator for Global Female Empowerment
- F-LANE is a five-week virtual acceleration programme for early-stage female entrepreneurs with ambitious outcomes to drive change by empowering women. It is put into practice by the Vodafone Institute.
- ScaleUp Africa helped implement the Accelerator providing coaching services.
- This project taps into Vodafone’s global community of over 300 experienced and renowned corporate mentors to help entrepreneurs in emerging markets deliver consistent Impact outcomes.
Opportunities For Women
New, Green Economy
- OFW is a programme focused on strengthening development Outcomes - enabling traditional leaders and young women in urban and peri-urban communities with the tools, skills, training, services (digital skills, basic literacy and soft skills, technical, food processing and value addition, circular economy models for alternative livelihoods) to improve their ability to contribute towards the New Economy.
- ScaleUp Africa partners with leading local innovators, Associations and sector specific non-profits to create a capacity building and affiliate networks to drive value, safeguard women and girls through skills and entrepreneurship development opportunities.
- The programme aims to build skills and micro entrepreneurship opportunities in the following fields: AgriTech, FinTech, Renewable Energy, Creative, Artisanal, Green industries
YouthConnekt Africa Summit
SME Ecosystem Engagement and Communications Lead
- Funded by the UNDP, KOICA and other partners, the 2021 edition was hosted by Ghana and took place in Accra with over 14 African Ministers of Youth and 2 Presidents on the bill. Theme: Positioning the Youth for the Post-COVID Economy and AfCFTA Opportunities.
- ScaleUp Africa was engaged to head up Communications, Gender and Youth Entrepreneurship Advisory to get more women and youth aware of new opportunities in the Digital, Creative and Green sectors
- Role: National Organizing Committee, Ministerial Advisory on Communications, Gender, and Youth SME Engagement
Survival Series
- We have advised and run a number of capacity building programmes and provided technical assistance for SMEs including the Survival Series, designed and implemented to provide SME Emergency support during the height of COVID 19.
- ScaleUp Africa was one of the first entrepreneurial support companies in Africa to 'go virtual' to meet the critical support needs of SMEs across Africa. We served over 2000 SMEs during this critical period.
Freezelink Agro ColdChain Summit
Promoting “Africa’s Horticultural Highway”
- ScaleUp Africa and private firm, Freezelink partnered to boost the ecosystem around Horticulture segment of Agriculture. The Summit and a series of National Seminars brought together key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical, fruit and vegetable export sectors.
- The discussions touched on how Youth and Female jobs could be created by increased fruit and vegetable production and exports for Ghana; and the reason why African fruit and vegetable exports, on average earn 55% below the global price for the same produce.
- Role: Event Management and Logistics, Stakeholder Engagement, Policy & Research
- ScaleUp Africa’s proximity to local Agribusinessess, Communities, Non-Profits, Associations, Advisors, Policy Makers and other ecosystem actors enabled the client to realise their strategic and tactical objectives with this summit and series of national seminars.
IGNITE Pan-African Business Festival
- ScaleUp Africa has had success in providing knowledge sharing, capacity building, technical assistance, financial inclusion, market access, value chain and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs of African descent globally.
- With digital content including the ‘Survival Series’ to support SMEs transition at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic to a series of SME and Female-Founder focused workshops during its flagship Pan-African virtual Business Festival, IGNITE which attracted over 3000 attendees from Africa and the Diaspora.
- ScaleUp Africa’s approach is based on building ecosystems , impactful partnerships and networks to contribute towards African Development. Sectors: Creative, Agriculture, Tech, Social Enterprise and Venture Capital.