Across Africa, finance has become a hot topic considering the economic impact of lock-downs and the pandemic outbreak. With a lot of job losses and pay cuts, Africa and the world are looking to entrepreneurs for resilient solutions. At the same time, businesses need finance to activate or expand the solutions they have.
Economic and monetary policies geared at mitigating crisis and protecting the small business owners are either existing in limited quantities, hardly understood or difficult to access. The Upside Africa team has therefore constituted a panel of African entrepreneurs who have extensive experience with financing their own SMEs.
Through this panel discussion, we hope to help SMEs tackle:
1. Finance & funding needs.
2. Business strategy.
3. Pivoting & scaling their operations.
In order to achieve greater financial stability for their budding bussinesses, leaders desperately look to Venture Capitalists and “business sharks”. A number find the capital they need to grow and scale their operations. While others sink under the pressures of business running cost and interest rates from loans.
The Panel
Moolah Matters: Financing African SMEs holds online on the 12th of September 2020, 17:00 (GMT+2).
This Upside Africa (UA) Panel would help individuals & businesses evaluate their financial positions before launch, identify ways to raise money, evaluate funding sources and make better financial decisions.
We hope to attract business executives, leaders and startup ventures who think they might be making poor financial choices and would like to get better at raising or managing money for their business.
This online workshop is part of the African Echoes Business Series run by Upside Africa. Brenda Apio Oca, an Executive & Business leader who is also the Upside Africa Vice-President (Africa) will be moderating the session. This panel is coordinated with the support of Upside Africa (Europe) and the team in Madrid, Spain represented by Jane Oma (Cofounder, Upside Africa).
The Panelists include:
1. Lesego Serolong Holzapfel (CEO and founder, Bokamoso Impact Investments)
2. Itumeleng Moagi (Co-founder – Growth Factor Technologies)
3. Stallone Siakam (Co-founder – ACHETES ONLINE)
Event Partners & Collaborators
The Upside Africa Network consists of SMEs from Africa and the Diaspora. Our events are designed to speak to audiences that our network of businesses connect with regularly. Some of our collaborators for this session include:
Chefonduty (@Chefonduty),
Apio, Byabazaire, Musanase & Co. Advocates (Twitter handle:@abmAdvocates_ug, LinkedIn handle:@abmadvocates)
QuickFresh Zimbabwe (Twitter handle: @QuickFresh2, Facebook: QuickFresh)
Little Blackwood farm ; Zimbabwe (Facebook: Little Blackwood Farm, Twitter: @little_bwd)
Achetes Online (Instagram: @achetes_online, Twitter: @AchetesO)
Optical illusion Media (Instagram: @opticaillusion, Facebook: Optical illusion Media)
Nvoicia (Instagram: @itumoagi, Twitter: @nvoicia)
DeutschConnect (Facebook: DeutschConnect, Twitter: @deutsch_connect, Instagram: @deutsch_connect)
Pesabase (Twitter: @pesabase, Facebook: pesabase, LinkedIn: pesabaseltd)
8 Figure Female (Instagram: @8figurefemale, Facebook: 8figurefemale)