Top African women entrepreneurs recognised in US program

The African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program International Exchange gives Africa’s business ladies a helping hand.

For more than 70 years, the United States has been running its International Visitor Leadership Program, a premier people-for-people exchange program that sees foreign industry leaders travelling to the United States to meet with their American counterparts and hold discussions and workshops within their industries.

In only its second year, the annual African Women’s Entrepreneurship Exchange Program recently saw 40 women entrepreneurs travelling to the United States from 36 African countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria and South Africa. The program was put together to honour the women leading the economic growth and development on the African continent, as well as provide these African women entrepreneurs with further training and opening various networking opportunities for them within their business sectors.

The women entrepreneurs will be travelling to cities such as Chicago, Miami, San Diego, Seattle and Washington during the program, along the way meeting with US policy makers, companies and organisations within numerous industries with the aim of sharing ideas, business practices and networking, as well as participating in specially organised events related to business matters, one of which will be hosted by Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Through these discussions, forums and workshops, the African businesswomen will also be provided with opportunities in the following business areas: to export their products and services to the United States’ marketplace, to increase their export outputs, and to strengthen economic partnerships in their countries, continent and across the globe, among others.

The program is also aimed at championing the rights of women as leaders and a driving force in the global business industry as well as within their communities. United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be meeting with the 40 businesswomen later today, having recently said that women are “key to economic growth” in the global business world and that she is looking forward to meeting the businesswomen taking part in the program.