A capacity-building program for entrepreneurs
Digital Africa’s capacity-building program is designed especially for African entrepreneurs, with 100% online skill strengthening sessions, in English and French. The session formats encourage knowledge-sharing and skill-building, while the program content focuses on developing resilience through high quality partnerships.
Organization of a pilot program in summer 2020
A pilot program, the Resilient Summer School, was run in July and August 2020. This first phase of the Digital Africa Campus program focused on mentoring and support, giving entrepreneurs an opportunity to discuss their projects and receive valuable feedback from more experienced entrepreneurs. They could also have discussions with their peers, share experiences with them and find solutions.
The program comprised:
- A free cycle of #Masterclass sessions co-designed and run by our partners, which focused on developing resilience to weather crises in Africa.
- Weekly #MeetAnEntrepreneur sessions for Challenge 1000 winners, which focused on experience-sharing. Each session focused on a specific sector and featured talks from seasoned entrepreneurs about their experiences.
A cycle of 5 #Masterclass sessions
The Resilient Summer School’s #Masterclass cycle included 5 sessions in English and French:
- OPENING SESSION: Innovations from Africa’s tech entrepreneurs to combat COVID-19: how constraints can also help accelerate transformations to enhance African resilience?
- In partnership with Emerging Valley & Partners
- Date: July 7, 2020 at 4pm GMT
- How to communicate and re-assess fundraising activities in times of crisis?
- In partnership with ANIMA Investment Network (DiafrikInvest / THE NEXT SOCIETY)
- Date: July 16, 2020 at 4pm GMT
- Managing risks: how can startups anticipate and adapt?
- In partnership with Viffa Consulting
- Date: July 21, 2020 at 4pm GMT
- How to mobilize your team to attract talents during the Covid-19 crisis?
- In partnership with SIBC
- Date: July 30, 2020 at 4pm GMT
- How to rethink your Business Model post Covid-19?
- In partnership with Sèmè City
- Date: August 13, 2020 at 4pm GMT
Access to these webinars is free and open to all. They are designed to:
- Accelerate startupper skill-building to enhance project sustainability
- Build resilience
- Create a shared learning dynamic
- Bring entrepreneurs together to create a knowledge-sharing community
An online #MeetAnEntrepreneur program
Around 10 innovative entrepreneurs, Challenge 1000 prizewinners, made keynote speeches.
With experience in a wide range of sectors such as #agriculture, #healthcare, #water, #e-commerce, #logistics, #education, #transport&mobility, #energy and #wasteManagement, they could talk about their journeys and experiences.
This program was only open to Challenge 1000 winners.
Conclusive initial results
- An 8-week program
- 5 #Masterclass sessions
- 10 #MeetAnEntrepreneur sessions (open only to Challenge 1000 winners)
- 5 key partners involved in the compilation of the program
- 750 minutes of live content
- 1 800 participants
Scaling-up the program
Following the success of this pilot program, Digital Africa will repeat the Digital Africa Campus in 2020 and 2021. #MeetA… mentoring sessions are currently being set up together with a program comprising several initiation modules on issues entrepreneurs face (the basics, financing strategies, digital communications, digital businesses, etc.).
