Nominations are now open for the 2022 edition of the prestigious AWIEF Awards, which recognise, honour, and celebrate women entrepreneurs and business owners in Africa and across various industry sectors for their achievements and contribution to the continent’s inclusive economic growth and social development.
AWIEF (the Africa Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum) is an award-winning pan-African women economic empowerment organisation that works to close the gender gaps by driving women’s business leadership and entrepreneurship in Africa.
Nominees for the AWIEF Awards should be emerging and established female entrepreneurs and founders who have demonstrated outstanding vision, leadership and inspiration despite challenges to make a significant social impact and/or become successful in their businesses in line with AWIEF’s core areas of innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and socio-economic development.
Winners of the 2022 AWIEF Awards will be announced and celebrated at a special ceremony and gala dinner at the AWIEF2022 conference (bit.ly/3LLiZtJ), which is set to take place on 26 and 27 September 2022, in Cairo, Egypt, with the theme ‘Advancing Africa through Gender Integration’.
The AWIEF Awards cover 8 categories with the following criteria:
The Young Entrepreneur Award
Nominees must be between 18 and 35 years old and must exemplify leadership in their field and the importance of entrepreneurship to effect positive change. The young entrepreneurs must have achieved tangible and material success (revenue and number of employees can indicate this).
Tech Entrepreneur Award
Nominees should be female entrepreneurs who have built an innovative, groundbreaking, and game-changing technology venture or start-up.
Agri Entrepreneur Award
Nominees should be female entrepreneurs who have successfully started an agri-enterprise and have a product or service in the Agriculture value chain with strong evidence of traction and impact in their communities.
Creative Industry Award
Nominees should be female entrepreneurs who reflect outstanding success in the creative industry, including music, performing arts, film, television and radio, software and interactive content such as virtual reality and augmented reality, media writing, publishing, and print media, design and visual art.
There are many outstanding women entrepreneurs and businesswomen across Africa who are driving growth, creating opportunities and positively impacting the continent
Empowerment Award
Nominees should be women who have greatly contributed and invested in inspiring, mentoring, and empowering women and girls, thereby significantly impacting the communities in which they operate, and society at large.
Energy Entrepreneur Award
Nominees should be female entrepreneurs in the oil & gas and/or green energy & renewable energy sectors who are operating successful businesses with impact on energy access and availability in their communities and countries.
Social Entrepreneur Award
Nominees should be female entrepreneurs who have developed an innovative, systemic and sustainable solution that directly tackles a social issue, thereby having a transformative social impact on their communities and countries.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Nominees should be established women entrepreneurs who have demonstrated prolonged and consistent achievements in business, and exceptional and outstanding business leadership. The award also recognises significant contributions made to job creation and the economy.
Last year’s winner of the AWIEF Lifetime Achievement Award was Margaret Hirsch, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Hirsch’s Homestores Group, the largest independently owned appliance and electronics retail outlet in Southern Africa. She says: “It was a huge, huge honour, and for me what I use it for is to help other women understand that 1: they’ve got to get recognized, 2: they’ve got to put themselves out there, and 3: they’ve got to get things done.”
Irene Ochem, AWIEF Founder and Chief Executive Officer, says: “There are many outstanding women entrepreneurs and businesswomen across Africa who are driving growth, creating opportunities, and positively impacting the continent. In this, our 6th edition of the AWIEF Awards, we are once again enthusiastic to celebrate and shine the spotlight on these inspirational female entrepreneurs and share their stories of excellence and success.”
Nominations for the 2022 AWIEF Awards close on 3rd June 2022. You can either self-nominate or nominate someone else.
The nomination process:
- Visit bit.ly/38SJejD
- Register an entrant profile by clicking “Submit an entry” in the top righthand corner of the page.
- Fill in the nomination form and submit.
Entries will be judged by an esteemed panel of business leaders and professionals.
