The MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Program has been expanded to eight more African nations as a result of its success in securing $16 million (USD) in funding for six startup companies last year.
The 2023 initiative, which gives small businesses in Africa’s technology sector the tools and chances they need to draw in transformative business capital, now has a greater possibility of helping them.
Five Zambian SME’s were chosen for the program at the beginning, and three of them, Lupiya, Mighty Finance Solutions Ltd, and PremierCredit, advanced to the South Africa Leg of the program by presenting their ideas to a panel of judges. Leah Kooma, the managing director of MultiChoice Zambia, spoke about the company’s dedication to advancing Africa through programs like these. She continued by saying that the company was in line with the government’s directive to strengthen SME development in Zambia, and that as a growth partner, MultiChoice was doing this in order to help forward this goal.
We’re really excited that we have three Zambian companies which have qualified to this stage of the Accelerator Program. As a business our aim remains to enrich the lives of Zambians and contributing to the governments agenda to grow the economy by empowering SME’s is just one way that we are responding and supporting this government and Zambia as a whole” – Leah Kooma, MultiChoice Zambia.
Aimed at established start-ups and small businesses in specific technological sectors—healthtech, Agritech, fintech, edutech, the circular economy, and the creative industries—the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme launched during World Entrepreneurship Week.
The MultiChoice Africa Accelerator, which debuted in South Africa in 2021, is now present in the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Angola, and Ethiopia. Zambia will be hosting this second stage of the program where the SME’s from 9 nations will be involved in a bootcamp session to learn how to construct their story for foreign investors, and to get “pitch ready” before their big presentations. At an awards gala ceremony that will be attended by Republican President Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, the SME’s will thereafter get recognition for their involvement in the initiative.
A project of the MultiChoice Innovation Fund in partnership with the Dubai-based business incubator Companies Creating Change (C3), the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme provides entrepreneurs with the resources, know-how, and funding they need to expand their companies.
Public and commercial sector partners in each nation nominated companies or entrepreneurs for the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Program’s inaugural phase. 29 of the start-ups then started a rigorous virtual training program. The project is aimed at already-running, established enterprises that want to grow by luring more investment.
The online training program took several weeks to complete, and it taught startup business owners how to use the media effectively, how to promote their companies to investors, how to write compelling business plans, and what potential investors are searching for.
MultiChoice, a corporation with strong ties to Africa and Zambia in particular, will work to make sure that we keep investing in novel ways to improve lives and expand the economies of Africa.
