Millions of African women are engaged in small- and medium-size enterprises. They are the backbone of Africa’s economy; yet real wealth creation translates to only a few.

The NEPAD Agency through its flagship programme the NEPAD/Spanish Fund partners with the Graça Machel Trust (GMT) to economically empower African women.

Mrs Graça Machel, widow of former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, is the founder of GMT, which aims to create platforms for African business women’s networks to build their capacity and leadership in the finance sector.

Mrs Machel played an advocating role in the establishment of the NEPAD/Spanish Fund in 2007.

The Fund is a partnership between the NEPAD Agency and the Spanish Government through the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID). It has benefited from a Euro 20 million contribution from the Government of Spain.

It provides financial and technical support and disburses money to women’s organisations, civil society organisations and government institutions to scale-up women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in Sub-Saharan Africa. 78 projects have been supported since its inception.

Through funding of EURO 385,000, the NEPAD/Spanish Fund has supported GMT in setting-up networks of Women in Business, Women in Agriculture and Women in Finance.

Yesterday, women’s business associations from over 10 African countries with a membership in GMT’s networks met in Johannesburg, to identify business and finance opportunities for women.

Representative from Zimbabwe women’s association interacting with GMT representative

In her opening remarks, Mrs Machel said that the “Trust’s work is to empower more than a few good women, but to significantly multiply the numbers of women who can have access to the tools for success.”

“It is important that women believe in the fact that they will be the major force in transforming African societies and the continent as a whole”, she said.

Ms Sisonke Msimang, Trustee of GMT, commended the genuine partnership between the NEPAD/Spanish Fund and the Trust and their effort to jointly grow women’s economic leadership.

Representative from women’s association sharing a success story from Uganda

So far, GMT has provided capacity building training in entrepreneurship management, finance literacy and leadership to associations part of their Network of African Businesswomen (NABW) in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Burundi. The training sessions will be scaled up to Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania next year.

Discussions will continue until Friday, November 21.