The Women in Africa (WIA) Initiative, the world’s leading international platform for the economic development and the support of African women entrepreneurs, has announced that 15 finalists have been selected from Mauritius to participate in the WIA 54 programme.
Introduced in 2017, the WIA 54 programme promotes women entrepreneurship in Africa, and this year more than 4,000 women entrepreneurs from around the African continent applied for the programme.
For this 5th edition, before appointing the 54 Country Laureates, the jury has made an initial selection of 540 finalists, including 15 from Mauritius, who will benefit from training and coaching.
Through this newly introduced initiative, WIA aims at supporting more than 10,000 women entrepreneurs and indirectly contributing to the creation of 100,000 jobs, by 2030.
The 15 finalists from Mauritius (in alphabetical order) are:
Sita Jeeneea-Saminaden, Sanjana Jhumun, Nirusha Keerpaul-Toocaram, Sonya Mohadeb, Hethal Mohun, Madvee Muthu, Zaahirah Muthy, Lutchmee Nobaub, Diane Nuteau, Mokshda Pertaub, Tanvi Ramtohul, Davina Sawoky-Gowardun, Tej Soodaye, Poulavi Sornum and Sharanaz Subratty.
The bootcamps for the finalists, which are being conducted virtually, began on 28 September with a masterclass on pitching, which will be followed by training and networking sessions in the coming weeks.
WIA will also announce one Country Laureate per country and nine Sector Prizes as Revelations, embodying the best of the continent, by the end of October.
All finalists will participate in a mentoring programme from January to June 2022, the goal of which is to support the women entrepreneurs in learning how to pitch and present their company and how to obtain access to finance.
