GMT & Mastercard Foundation Empower Women Entrepreneurs & Youth in Africa with Women Creating Wealth Initiative

For the African continent to experience economic progress, achieving gender equality, women's empowerment, and youth involvement are essential. According to research, putting money in the hands of women has a significant impact on reducing inequality and poverty. The World Bank claims that women are more inclined than males to invest in their families and communities, which reduces poverty.

The problem, though, is that the majority of women-owned firms continue to operate in a survivalist manner; they generate revenue and rely on the owner to be actively committed full-time, but do not build substantial wealth. They also have particular difficulties while trying to enter markets and get capital to expand their operations. They need assistance to overcome these obstacles in order to transform their enterprises from ones that provide money into ones that generate wealth.

This is why The Graça Machel Trust (GMT) is thrilled to announce its collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation to support the expansion and scaling up of women-owned and -led Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (WSMMEs) while generating job opportunities for young Africans. The Women Creating Wealth - Intergenerational Edition (WCW-l) will address both the human and ecological levels of the issues now preventing the expansion of WSMMEs. In order to help women entrepreneurs establish successful companies, the two organisations want to expedite and sustain the development of meaningful employment for young people.

Through this three-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, GMT aspires to help at least 3,500 companies, empower women and young people in Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia to be change agents, create their own futures, and make a significant contribution to the prosperity and development of Africa, and support at least 3,500 businesses in these countries.

The assistance from the Mastercard Foundation comes at a good moment for GMT, which is working hard to promote women entrepreneurs and create a business development framework that takes gender equality into account. With this support, GMT will give female entrepreneurs in the selected industries access to the skills, materials, and business environments they need to grow their firms, generate wealth, and employ more African youth around the continent. The Foundation's dedication to advancing programming and research that is gender-responsive has had a beneficial impact on gender equality, youth involvement, performance, and opportunity, as well as on resolving some of the issues.