Seychelles women to develop leadership through FemBioBiz |05 April 2018

The African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) has partnered with NEPAD Southern Africa Network for Biosciences (SANBIo) to implement the second season of the FemBioBiz acceleration programme in South Africa.

FemBioBiz will be rolled out in a total of eight southern African countries including Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The FemBioBiz acceleration programme has been created to develop leadership, technological and business skills in female-owned businesses in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to support deal-making and business acceleration in the Biosciences arena.

The Guy Morel Institute in collaboration with the National Institute for Science, Technology and Innovation (Nisti) are coordinating this programme in Seychelles for the first time.

Present at the launch which took place yesterday morning at the Guy Morel Institute (GMI) were the Dean of the GMI Shella Mohideen, the chief executive of Nisti Xavier Estico, the principal secretary for the Blue Economy Rose-Marie Bargain, Seychelles Maritime Academy students, Seychelles Institute of Agricultural and Horticulture students among other invited guests.

This programme creates a platform for peer learning and will empower women and especially the Seychelles women to lead in health and nutrition through science and technology.

Mr Estico stated that such platform will allow the Seychellois women to grab an opportunity to create their own businesses.

“Such a platform will inspire other women involved to realise the business potential and to be creative. We are a small nation, willing to venture on a bigger platform and allow our women to become successful business women. We have so many women that are able to come up with creative ideas to start-up their own business and become successful,” he said.

During the launch of the programme, a first applicant was able to register for the FemBioBiz.

The programme will target female entrepreneurs with a business involving biotechnologies and other technologies in health or nutrition under the following categories: innovative business, growth businesses, social enterprises and female student in tertiary institution.

The programme is in three phases, with the first part executed in a two-day pitch training workshop for selected applicants.

The second phase will take the top performer through a mentorship programme, with plenty of opportunities along the way and which will be concluded at a pitching event at the South Africa Innovation Summit in Cape Town in September.

The final phase will take place and the best performer of the programme will go on a journey to Europe’s leading start up event in Finland and also receive a cash prize of ZAR (South African rands) 250,000 to develop his/her business with support from SANBIo.