Coca-Cola SABCO Mozambique and Standard Bank have recently signed a memorandum of understanding that aims at the collaboration of the two institutions to promote entrepreneurship, with special focus on women and youth.

The agreement stems from the vision of the two entities to create inclusive growth opportunities for the communities through their sustainability pillars.

These opportunities will be materialized through the various entrepreneurship promotion programs, with emphasis on iCreate, developed by Standard Bank's Business Incubator.

With the iCreate program, the two entities aim to reach the ratio of women in companies, establishing gender equity. In a 12-week acceleration program, the project beneficiaries will be exposed to hands-on training that will include mentoring sessions, counseling, workshops, and business demonstrations.

In addition to collaborating on iCreate, a program also contributed to by the German Cooperation and its E4D partners, the bank and the soft drink company are committed to creating other initiatives aimed at empowering women.

"We are committed to executing the activities of this program with zeal and to creating other opportunities to inspire young women to design and lead their businesses, equipping them with knowledge and facilitating their access to new markets through contact with various speakers and program partners," said João Guirengane, head of Business Banking and Commercial Clients at Standard Bank.

For its part, Coca-Cola SABCO Mozambique is committed to encouraging empowerment through sharing of knowledge, experience, local supply chain development and market opportunities.

According to Duncan Wyness, general manager of Coca-Cola Sabco Mozambique, his company will allocate its professionals as program speakers and thus share the experience of good business practices: "Through the Masterclass we will share our vision of the business world and, above all, provide trainees with tools so that after the program, they will know how to capture opportunities," said Duncan Wyness.

Duncan stressed that Coca-Cola Mozambique has been committed to economic inclusion as part of its social responsibility since 2012, saying that "in 2019 we implemented the PET bottle collection and recycling project where in addition to ensuring the cleanliness of the environment, we impacted 6,583 women and youth plastic bottle collectors through employability and training."

The signing of the agreement took place at the Standard Bank Business Incubator, in Maputo, and counted with the participation of several public and private entities.