Capacity Building Programme For Entrepreneurs and Intermediaries

SAIS 2 is a regional initiative that supports the growth of new businesses through strengthening innovation ecosystems and promotion of cross-border collaboration between innovation role-players in Southern Africa.  SAIS 2 is supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, in partnership with the Ministries responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, and the Southern African Development Community Secretariat.

Impact Amplifier is supporting this programme by providing capacity building to the SAIS 2 projects in three distinct areas:

• Investment Readiness Acceleration – a seven-month acceleration programme (delivered both online and face-to-face), which includes:
  ⁃ Impact Model - Social or Environmental Challenge and Solutions
  ⁃ Target Markets, Competitive Landscape, Value Proposition
  ⁃ Market Access – Sales, distribution, promotion, partnerships
  ⁃ Financial Modelling
  ⁃ Growth Strategy
  ⁃ Three-year Financial Plan
  ⁃ Pitch Presentations
  ⁃ Investor Documentation
• Investment Readiness Master Classes – many of the SAIS 2 funded project grantees (as well as their project members) work as innovation support organisations assisting entrepreneurs and other innovation role-players in their ecosystem. The Investment Readiness Master Classes support the consortium members in developing their capacity in the technical subjects described in the acceleration list above.
• Beneficiary Mentoring – There are often insufficient local mentors to support start-ups in countries throughout Southern Africa. To address this, the capacity building program is building a mentor network in countries where SAIS 2 funded projects are being implemented. The intention is to support the beneficiaries (entrepreneurs and start-ups) of SAIS 2 project grantees.

October 2022

SAIS launched a third cohort in late 2021 and Impact Amplifier supported this group of projects until the project was closed in April 2022. The final report for the entire programme is available here.