Sixteen female Rwandan entrepreneurs are among the 100 East African women entrepreneurs who will be announced today as winners of the inaugural 2X Invest2Impact Awards at the Global Gender Summit in Kigali. The Global Gender Summit scheduled to take 25 – 27 this month in Kigali is organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) with other multilateral partners. It takes place every after two years with an objective of sharing best practices and investment to accelerate progress for gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa and around the world. This year’s edition that will be graced by the First lady of Rwanda Mrs Jeannette Kagame will dig into issues of how gender equality and women’s empowerment can be achieved; scaling up innovative financing, enabling legal, regulatory and institutional environments. The event brings together leaders from government, development institutions, private sector, civil society and academia. Among the things on the agenda of the summit are the 2X Invest2Impact organized and launched by the Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) of Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States of America in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The Invest2Impact initiative was launched in July 2019 to provide entrepreneurs with networking opportunities, mentorship, business development services, visibility and access to funding, to enable their businesses to grow. The competition looks at established women-owned businesses at the growth stage, poised for investment capital. Depending on the awards category, the winners are able to walk away with prizes ranging from business investment and mentoring; to cash prizes; crowdfunding, and visibility opportunities. The Invest2Impact initiative aims to reach women-owned businesses that may otherwise face barriers in accessing investment capital; contribute to the community of women business owners and leaders in the region. It also aims to gather and share lessons learned on women in business and gender lens investing, increase visibility and momentum for gender-lens investing, and pilot an investment prospecting model that could be replicated in other regions. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
