At the beginning of January 2021 DSIK Southern Africa increased its regional scope  from primary Financial Literacy (FinLit) to focusing on the “Promotion of small-scale  Entrepreneurship in Southern Africa. To support entrepreneurs in growing their  businesses, DSIK together with strong partners developed a needs-based mentoring  program tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs. This programme will be piloted in  2022.»Learn more about the pilot here

Mentorship is a guidance relationship between a mentor and a mentee in the process of personal growth of a mentee. Ideally, this relationship equals a desire-driven, individually tailored alliance to achieve a specific goal and can help entrepreneurs and small business owners to develop sustainable businesses that create jobs. A recent survey by Sage found that 93 percent of startup owners say mentorship is crucial to success. Sticking with a mentor over a long-time frame will help ensure business longevity. A mentorship program contributes to the resilience of a business amid shocks like COVID by steering the mentee toward focusing on responsibility and goals. According to the Small Business Administration, 70 percent of mentored businesses last longer than 5 years, which is significantly longer than average start-ups, of which 30 percent don’t survive longer than a year. The program thus is targeted at DSIK’s indicators through creating sustainability and crisis-coping capacity.

Currently the Business Game Simulations as a core product of the German Sparkassenstiftung for international Cooperation (DSIK) are already contributing to the bankability of participants and to financial literacy and inclusion in Zambia and the region. Participants who want to develop their entrepreneurial spirit after the training should be supported in the long term and continuously activated to consolidate their business drive, which is why the need for a follow-up mentorship programme was identified. In addition, many Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) in Zambia request an ongoing, structured mentorship programme for their members.