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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
AFRICA will early next year roll out an online programme called 50 Million African Women Speak (50MWS) Digital Platform that will enhance women entrepreneurs’ access to information on financial and non-financial services.

The digital platform will be rolled out in Africa’s three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) involving the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), East African Community (EAC), and the Economic Commission for West African States (Ecowas).

Comesa is a 19-member trading bloc comprising countries such as Zimbabwe, Burundi, Zambia, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and Eritrea.

In a statement yesterday, Comesa said a workshop aimed at facilitating the digital platform was recently conducted at the Comesa Secretariat in Lusaka, Zambia.

The workshop was facilitated by a Spain-based technology consultancy company which won the bid to develop the software and to design the platform.

“The development objective of the project is to contribute to the economic empowerment of women through the provision of a networking platform to enable women to access information on financial and non-financial services.

“Specifically, the objective of the project is to establish a platform to improve the ability of women entrepreneurs to network and share information and to access financial services,” it said.

The 50MWS is a three-year project funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), jointly implemented by Comesa, EAC and Ecowas in 38 countries.

Comesa said designing process of the 50MWS commenced, embracing officials from the trading bloc, EAC, Ecowas and the AfDB as well as other stakeholders representing policy makers, women in business and service providers.

In order to achieve its objectives, it is hoped that the project will create a dynamic and networking platform for women entrepreneurs to connect them with one another in ways that would foster peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and the sharing of information and knowledge within communities and access to trade finance and market opportunities between urban and rural areas, and across borders and between countries.

Comesa assistant secretary-general for programmes Ambassador Dr Kipyego Cheluget was quoted during the workshop urging the RECs and stakeholders to be innovative and develop a user-friendly platform that can be easily adopted by women entrepreneurs.

“The aim is to have a platform that is responsive and fit for purpose. We want a digital platform that will make it easier and convenient for women entrepreneurs to navigate and access the relevant information they need to develop and grow their business”, he said

Amb Cheluget said Comesa was making strides to invigorate member states towards the full adoption of digital technologies.

He said their focus was on establishing seamless processes across the Comesa region to enable ease of doing business/trade and to enhance regional integration using information communication technologies as a tool.

Amb Cheluget noted that the 50MWS project was being implemented at a time when Comesa was rolling out instruments of Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA) to minimise physical barriers in its member states.

@okazunga