The Invest in Africa (IIA) Initiative Offers Free COVID-19 SME Programme

The Invest in Africa (IIA) initiative is offering free access for African startups to its emergency COVID-19 SME survival programme amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Invest in Africa works with a wide network of partner organizations in Africa, including the UK Department for International Trade, to effectively promote and accelerate the development of SMEs.
The programme aims to not only enhance startups chances of surviving this crisis but also to help them emerge stronger and more resilient

The Invest in Africa (IIA) initiative is offering free access for African startups to its emergency COVID-19 SME survival programme, which provides business support for African businesses in struggle amid the pandemic.

Founded in 2012, the private sector-led IIA initiative operates locally across the continent in five countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia and Mauritania, acting as a driver for growth and competitiveness in SMEs by providing training, enhancing access to finance and mitigating supply chain risk.

The initiative has now expanded access to all startups across the continent to its free “COVID-19 SME Survival Toolkit” The toolkit includes webinars, practical guides, approaches and suggestions to help African SMEs address the many problems posed by the pandemic.

“Because the vast majority of businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are SMEs, they also provide nearly all employment opportunities, so ensuring their survival is critical to longer term economic growth prospects,” said William Pollen, IIA’s chief executive officer (CEO).

“What we’re aiming to achieve through this programme is not only to enhance SMEs’ chances of surviving this crisis but also to help them emerge stronger and more resilient.”

Invest in Africa works with a wide network of partner organizations in Africa, including the UK Department for International Trade, to effectively promote and accelerate the development of SMEs. The new project introduced by IIA as part of the COVID-19 startup programme is a series of interactive training sessions in collaboration with these organisations, providing courses such as “The 100-Day COVID-19 Business Recovery Plan” in collaboration with EY and “Formulating Strategies for Helping Female-led SMEs” in partnership with IFC.

Research by Startup Genome reveals that since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, 74 per cent of startups have registered declines in sales. Also, due to the impact of the crisis on industries served by some of these startups, an 80 per cent drop in revenue was recorded by around 16 per cent.