Deadline: 23-Oct-22

The African Development Bank’s Fashionomics Africa Call for Proposals is seeking for African Fashion, Textile, Apparel and Accessories entrepreneurs and businesses to apply and benefit from the Fashionomics Africa Online Incubator and Accelerator programs.

The programs will run for 8-weeks each and the content will be available in English, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Through a competitive process, the top fashion entrepreneurs will be invited to pitch their business ideas at the online Fashionomics Africa pitching days competitions.

Fashionomics Africa is an initiative of the African Development Bank that aims at increasing Africa’s participation in the global textile, apparel, and accessories value chains. The objective is to support the growth of micro-small and medium-sized enterprises that dominate this industry, equipping them with the necessary business skills, financial acumen, access to markets, market intelligence, and financing opportunities to scale up their businesses in an increasingly digitalized economy.

The initiative is launching the online Fashionomics Africa incubator and accelerator programs to build sustainable business models and access financing opportunities. The curriculum and content will be structured in separated incubator and accelerator programs, focused on improving the marketability of early stage (incubator) and growth-oriented start-ups (accelerator) to financiers through an emphasis on strengthening business and financial models, investment readiness, branding, marketing, digitization, sustainability and circular economy actions applied to the industry, and outlining preparations for the capital raising process through detailed coursework on entrepreneurial finance.

Benefits

• The programs will culminate to 12 selected finalists each from the incubator and accelerator programs vying for the top 4 prizes for 20,000 USD each to scale up their operations.

Eligibility Criteria

• The competition is open to participants who can provide an identification document like a passport, national ID card or voters card issued in an African country, and/or domiciled in African countries.
• Applicants should be 18 years of age and above. Priority will be given to youth (18-35) and women-led fashion businesses.
• Any fashion micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) or fashion entrepreneurs operating in the fashion ecosystem, including but not limited to fashion designing and dressmaking, accessories design and making, textile design, fashion illustration, fashion photography, technology-enabled fashion businesses, and service providers whose main sector of focus is fashion, are welcome to apply.

Specific Selection Criteria

• Fashion business entities under three (3) years, either registered or not registered.
• Fashion business has at least deployed a proof of concept, at the micro, small or medium level.
• The application provides a clear and detailed description of the fashion business.
• Entities should be formally registered as a business in the African country of operation.
• Fashion business/start-up needs to be at the growth stage (must have existed for at least 3 years, have solid traction with clear product and sale channels and customer base).

For more information, visit https://fashionomicsafrica.org/incubator-and-accelerator-programs-call-for-applications