A Nonprofit organisation, ImpactHER has launched an emergency relief grant for women-led businesses in Africa.
ImpactHER, in a statement on Wednesday said the grants would provide well-needed support for female-led businesses that had been negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The World Bank notes that the pandemic has had a devastating impact on businesses globally and has forced many female-led businesses to risk a permanent business shutdown, pushing an estimated 23 million people into extreme poverty”, it said.
According to ImpactHER, a survey was conducted in 2020 to understand the impact of COVID-19 on women-led businesses and the results revealed that over 1300 women-led businesses, in 30 African countries, were at risk of permanently shutting down, amidst a need for capital.
The NGO said it was responding to the crisis by providing an undisclosed number of grants to women-led businesses in Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone Africa, who were struggling to stay afloat.
It added that the grants would be accompanied by a three-month business growth and strategy sessions, to empower the beneficiaries with strategic knowledge and guidance for the optimal utilisation of the funds.
“COVID-19 has had devastating effects on a substantial number of small and medium-sized businesses globally. But, one of the effects was that it had widened the gender-financing gap”, Efe Ukala, the Founder of ImpactHER, remarked
she decried that some of the stimulus packages provided for COVID-19 impacted businesses in Africa did not address the inherent gender bias, hence the NGO’s efforts at helping to fill that gap.
She revealed that applications for the emergency relief funds grant would close on July 31, 2021.
Read also: How To Apply For ImpactHER Business Boost Grant
