Connecting People, Creating Opportunities
Angels Finance Cooperation (AFC) arose out of the Social Entrepreneurship and Leadership training delivered by Educate! at St Mary’s College Kisubi, as a response to the challenge of growing youth businesses. Founded in March 2010 by George William Bakka, now an Educate! Alumni, in partnership with three other Educate! scholars, AFC started off with about $150 providing debt seed financing (small microcredit loans) to identified start up entrepreneurs in Educate!. By November the supported clients had started business operations in fashion designing, brick-laying, and a bakery. AFC participated in the Educate! Business plan competition, and won an award of $100 from Equity Bank to further expand the initiative. This post is a reflection of how Angels Finance Cooperation has grown to become a non-profit business incubation organisation:
INTRODUCTION
Angels Finance Cooperation (AFC) is a non-profit business incubation organization whose aim is to support the growth of youth businesses in Africa. This is through developing the institutional infrastructure to identify early stage opportunities and then assist them in the process of commercialization. AFC incubation thus integrates financial services with business development resources that involve assisting access to strategic resources like strategic business advice, industry associated support, financing for companies formation, training, mentoring & coaching, product development, and marketing for start up and developing youth entrepreneurs.
VISION
An Africa where all people are financially free, live healthy and promote sustainable economic development
MISSION
Stimulating, supporting, and building self sustaining local business ventures in developing, and emerging markets.
MAIN PROGRAMMES: BUSINESS INCUBATION TOOLKIT
The business is developed through the Angels Business Development Milestones which include, Gestation (where the idea is refined to a business model), Inception (Preparation of adequate business plan and financial documentation and prototype trial), Angels Investment (financing to expand the initiative and also obtain more elaborate venture financing, and Roll Out Maturation (The enterprise is visible within the market and then graduate from the incubator)
THE OFF SITE MICROBANKS
AFC incubation model integrates an institutional framework of Angels Microbanks (major offsite) with a physical housing incubation facility. The Angels Microbanks are youth membership based organisations that integrate financial services (with a saving and cooperative institutional structure) and also the component of Business Development to grow businesses of youth. They help provide the angels new firms with the supportive network necessary to increase probability of survival from the start to the maturation stage.