Gender Lens Investment Naming Event
On 21st May 2019, The Graça Machel Trust’s Gender Lens Investment (GMT-GLI) team organised an event that aimed at coming up with a name for the fund. It was really exciting to see influential women from the Trust’s networks around Kenya come together to celebrate and name what they will call their own investment fund.
This event took place in Nairobi capital city of Kenya and it aimed at involving women as part of the GMT-GLI foundation by gaining their input on the creation of the fund’s name. This is seen as a very good initiative as it will allow ownership and impact of the brand and its name. This fund comes at the right time for women as it will help create employment as well as a working environment that nurtures female success. Valentine Njoroge, who is a member of New Faces New Voices Kenya chapter was at the event and she expressed her appreciation of including everyone in the naming process, she said it is important that the fund was named by many women to create a sense of ownership.
“The Gender Lens Investment Fund will be the first for Africa and I believe it tells the world that African women and their businesses are worth investing in. For women who have struggled to find investors and raise capital, it is amazing to know that it is on the way, this will change the finance landscape for African women… this is a great time to be an African woman! “- Valentine Njoroge – Graça Machel Trust Women in Media network member.
The naming process received input from women in the Trust’s 35 networks from across the continent who proposed a total of 78 names which the participants were taken through in a name-storming, elimination and shortlisting process where only five to names were selected and submitted to the Trust for audit and final selection. Watch out for the bi reveal for the selected name soon.
The Graça Machel Trust’s Gender Lens Investment Vehicle is a venture capital fund that as created by the Trust through a grant that was received from the Rockefeller Foundation that seeks to support the development of a Pan African gender lens investment vehicle to accelerate women’s economic empowerment in Africa by putting capital in the hands of women entrepreneurs.
Read more on our Women’s Economic and Social Advancement programme
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