African Women in Business (“African WIB”) signed an Memorundum of Understanding with Unicaf University to offer its student members and entrepreneurs bursaries.
Unicaf is fully aligned with African WIB’s goal to propel more women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power worldwide and to promote diversity and equity through our partnership said Dr Ridley the Vice Chancellor of Unicaf University.
He further stated that Unicaf University is well placed to support entrepreneurs to engage in further study through the online technology platform. The platform offers economically priced Bachelor, Master’s and Doctoral programmes as well as purpose designed short courses to meet the widespread needs of professionals, including businesswomen and men. These programmes cover a wide range of business and technology-associated topics. The flexibility of the online programmes, which can be accessed any time of day or night, 24/7, and can be taken at a pace that suits the student, is particularly appropriate for busy working professionals such as those supported by African WIB.
The pan-African nature of our Unicaf programmes and organisation also links well with the pan-African network being established by African WIB. The multiple national perspectives that the partnership with African WIB will bring to the online teaching and learning and to the research.
As well as providing the existing programmes and short courses to African WIB members. African WIB will use the practical experiences to develop more and improved purpose-designed programmes that are of value and easily accessible to women entrepreneurs and indeed many other potential students.
Ms Chisha the President of African women in Business stated with the World Economic Forum estimating that 15 to 20 million young people will join the African workforce every year for the next two decades. By 2030, Africa will be home to more than a quarter of the world’s population under 25 who will make up 60% of the continent’s total population. By then, 15% of the world’s working-age population will be in Africa, and the continent’s urbanized population will exceed 700 million (more than 50%).
Governments, business enterprises, civil society, and other key stakeholders must join forces to ensure that the hundreds of millions of ready hands are upskilled, retrained, or offered the opportunity to get access to the right kind of education that can make them useful and wanted in a highly technologically-driven world.
As a respectable member of society with the aim of supporting women, the African WIB has partnered with UNICAF to open access to quality educational programmes that are designed to empower members by providing them with life skills fit enough for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With as many as half the population being women and young girls, the new partnership will prove, once and for all, that Africans living in Africa can also access quality education that can transform them into skilled workers or entrepreneurs that can be truly competitive in the job market or create further opportunities down the line.
Considering the many life-changing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered on its robust learning management system, UNICAF is indeed the right choice for African women willing to get educated, no matter where they reside. Whether in Limpopo or Lilongwe, and anywhere else on the African continent, every woman now has the opportunity to bridge the knowledge and skills gap, thanks to a generous bursary that is as much as 85% discount offered to women who register through the African WIB initiative.
“We work to strengthen the wealth-creating capacity of our members and promote economic development within the entrepreneurial community”
Shiphra Chisha | President African Women in Business
