ECOWAS women empowerment project gets financial boost from Spain

Addis Ababa, July 12 (WIC) – ECOWAS and NEPAD signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a grant agreement to benefit African rural women entrepreneurs.

The agreement, signed today at the new African Union Conference Center in Addis Ababa, involved a total sum of nearly one million euros provided by Spain to ECOWAS through the NEPAD – Spanish Fund.

The grant is expected to provide funds for the Business Incubator for African Women Entrepreneurs (BIAWE) project, a joint initiative between ECOWAS and NEPAD which supports business ventures of rural African women operating primarily in the area of agriculture.

The MoU was signed between President of ECOWAS Commission Kadre Desire’ Ouedraogo and CEO of NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki.

“It is expected that the successful completion of business incubator project would increase the likelihood that women start-up enterprises will be sustainable,” Kadre Desire’ Ouedraogo said.

BIAWE project is designed to provide a guarantee fund for rural women entrepreneurs in Africa so that they can receive support from financials institutions in the areas of loans, processing of agricultural produce and market access.

“This agreement is important because it targets a key priority of our mandate which is capacity development,” Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said during the ceremony, which was also attended by Miguel Fernandez-Palacios, Ambassador of Spain to Ethiopia.