MEDA Partners With The Mastercard Foundation To Create Thousands Of Jobs Through Funding Investments In Africa For Women And Youth Entrepreneurs
MEDA Partners With The Mastercard Foundation To Create Thousands Of Jobs Through Funding Investments In Africa For Women And Youth Entrepreneurs. MEDA is pleased to announce that the USD $200 million Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund launched today. The Fund of Funds (FOF) initiative will help advance the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to enable 30 million young people in Africa, particularly young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.
Funded by the Mastercard Foundation, Mennonite Economic Development Associates of Canada (MEDA) will lead the Fund of Funds project with support from its other partners. MEDA’s partners include Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), the Criterion Institute, Genesis Analytics, and Africa Communications Media Group (ACG). An expert investment committee from the African continent will oversee the project.Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role on the African continent. Yet, they lack access to the finance they need to grow their businesses. In particular, women and youth SMEs face barriers to accessing this resource. Eliminating this barrier to finance can close the funding gap, increase economic growth, and reduce poverty among women and youth.
President and CEO of MEDA, Dr. Dorothy Nyambi, underscores how this partnership will create decent work and economic empowerment on the African continent. “We need to do everything it takes now to build a continent with shared prosperity and sustainable, inclusive growth. This Fund of Funds will strengthen and empower a new crop of African investment vehicles to create decent work for women and youth via investments in small and medium-sized enterprises.”
By working with the Mastercard Foundation, MEDA will foster positive social and environmental outcomes for women and youth-owned SMEs. It will further strengthen the African investment ecosystem. Lastly, MEDA’s work with the Mastercard Foundation FOF project will advance its goal of creating or sustaining decent work for 500,000 people by 2030 and help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal #8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
