The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Indiana University, Bahir Dar University (BDU), and Debre Markos University (DMU) jointly hosted an entrepreneurship workshop in Bahir Dar last week. The Partnership in Business Entrepreneurship and Leadership Transformation (PiBELT) and Lifting Up Young Female Entrepreneurs (LiYFE) or PiBELT-LiYFE workshop celebrated both initiatives.
LiYFE empowers young women entrepreneurs in the Debre Markos-Bahir Dar business corridor to establish their own career paths. Project activities and strategies for sustainability were the focus of the workshop.
The PiBELT program has established new business incubation centers and entrepreneurship curricula at Bahir Dar and Debre Markos Universities to promote strong innovation ecosystems across the country. Through PiBELT, the innovation centers at BDU and DMU were strengthened, a survey of the entrepreneurship ecosystem was completed, and industry linkages were established and strengthened in the Bahir Dar-Debre Markos business corridor.
PiBELT and LiYFE were designed by Indiana University, Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, and Injibara Universities jointly, and they continue to manage and lead the projects. An additional fourteen Ethiopian universities have participated in a training-of-trainers program to help expand this unique entrepreneurship training opportunity to the wider group of youth across Ethiopia.
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa provided over $600,000 (32 million Birr) to make these two projects possible.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia.
