Governo de Angola, STEMi Africa, INAPEM, AAJM-HUILA to host Project Kuongoza Accelerator for women Entrepreneurs in Angola.
Key governmental and nongovernmental organizations have come together to host the Project Kuongoza accelerator program for women in Angola. The Project Kuongoza program is designed to support 50 women entrepreneurs at various stages of their business journey, offering digital technologies, resource tools, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help them scale and grow their businesses. This initiative is scheduled from June to July 2025 and also set to include hands-on training on digital skills, access to funding, and connections with industry leaders and business mentors in the Huíla province of Angola.
In Angola, widespread informality remains the major source of income for a large share of the population. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) study concerning Informality (2022), there are more than 9 million informal workers, of which, women are the most vulnerable with up to five direct dependents, representing (87,8%) and 92.5% are young people between 15 and 24 years old. In the last three decades, Luanda’s population has grown eightfold, and the initial growth was due to rural populations fleeing the fighting in the countryside to the relative safety of the capital. Lacking skills and education, most of the city’s new inhabitants turned to informal trade.
The Project Kuongoza accelerator program for women is responding to these challenges by providing a user-centric approach and integrating practical, real-world applications to ensure that 50 women entrepreneurs not only learn but also apply critical digital skills on venture pipeline development, building sustainable MVPs, digital marketing, storytelling to drive sales, access business fundings and mentorship. This effect will empower their communities as well as improve access to development support on business, financial literacy, and digital services (mobile money).
STEMi Makers of Africa will be working closely with the Angolan Government, Associação de Apoio à Mulher Jovem da Huíla, The National Institute of Support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, abbreviated as INAPEM, Lubango Cidade de Cophecimento, Africell towards the empowerment of the beneficiaries from the Huila province of Angola.
The Founder of the Associação de Apoio à Mulher Jovem da Huíla, Vanuza Cruz shared that they are, “committed to empowering young women and civil societies to actively participate in inclusive and decentralized governance”. We are happy to collaborate with STEMi Makers of Africa to increase the business capacity, boldness of women in the Huíla province. This will ensure that the success of the business activities and peer-learning sessions will help to propel young women-owned businesses”.