Now in its fourth year, applications for the ABH grant are currently open in both French and English and the competition has already drawn talented entrepreneurs from almost all of the 54 African countries with entrants from a diverse spectrum of sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, ICT, Education, Fashion, Healthcare, Business Services, Media and Entertainment. The ScaleUp program led by ABH’s partners will provide entrants with holistic training sessions that cover a critical range of business operational areas for entrepreneurs and small businesses. The Initial programs will cover a Management Development course led by African Management Institute which will equip managers with skills to empower teams and drive performance; an Investment Readiness program designed by VC4A will teach fundraising, negotiating with equity investors, debt finance and more. 10×1000 will oversee fintech training to provide entrepreneurs with the mindset knowledge and skills on the latest fintech topics and technologies to become drivers of digital economic growth; and Financial Management by the South African Innovation Summit (SAIS) to explore key financial topics around financial management to grow a business. To date, the program has attracted 32 per cent female entrants and 68 male entrants. As a Pan-African and all-inclusive initiative, ABH is encouraging entrepreneurs and small-business owners to join the competition and stand the chance to gain many of its benefits including access to training, mentorship and a pool of USD $1.5 million. Alongside the Community Leads initiative, ABH has also launched a new ABH ScaleUp program. The ScaleUp program will provide ABH entrants with holistic training sessions that cover a critical range of business operational areas for entrepreneurs and small businesses including People & HR Management, Strategy Planning, Financial Management, Growth, Fundraising, and Operations & Execution. The newly launched ABH Community Lead initiative is set to foster greater connection and engagement among ABH finalists and applicants led by winners and finalists Across the African continent. The North African region for instance will be led by 2021 1st place winner Khadija El Bedweihy, PraxiLabs Egypt and ABH Local Community Lead for North Africa. In each of these countries, Community Leads will have a platform to engage, collaborate and build a strong entrepreneurial community in their local markets. They will be organizing a range of offline events for ABH finalists including coffee, outdoor activities, discussions and vision boarding as well as events for ABH applicants such as information and networking sessions, ABH Show viewing parties and live streams of the ABH Grand Finale. the West Africa region will be led by 2019 top 10 finalist Chibuzo Opara of DrugStoc Nigeria “It’s great to be part of this amazing program. I feel humbled to be a community leader working with entrepreneurs out of Nigeria to enable them to leverage the ABH platform to solve their challenges and create African business giants. Excited about the next couple of years – watch this space guys!” Alongside the Community Leads initiative, ABH has also launched a new ABH ScaleUp program. The ScaleUp program will provide ABH entrants with holistic training sessions that cover a critical range of business operational areas for entrepreneurs and small businesses including People & HR Management, Strategy Planning, Financial Management, Growth, Fundraising, and Operations & Execution. Beyond the training programs on offer to ABH finalists, the ScaleUp program will also include community-based learning sessions that are open to the wider ABH community including past applicants. To apply to the 2022 Africa’s Business Heroes competition and gain access to a wide range of benefits, enter your application on ABH’s official site
