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 AABWA creates business opportunities and access to markets through networks, linkages, mentoring and leadership development. |
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 The members of American and African Business Women's Alliance (AABWA) represent business and professional women from Africa and America engaged in trade and investment. AABWA was established to foster business opportunities and access to markets through networks, linkages, mentoring and leadership development for women. AABWA seeks to increase international and intra-Africa trade and investment by encouraging business partnerships within the African continent and with the United States. |
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The genesis of AABWA was in the groundbreaking conference, Africa and America — A Gateway for Women in Business, held in September, 2000 in Chicago, Illinois. The conference was organized by Eastman Kodak Company; the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a subsidiary of the US Chamber of Commerce; and the Africa-America Institute (AAI). At the conference African apparel makers struck a deal with American counterparts to supply church robes for a large congregation in Chicago. Other African apparel manufacturers were able to obtain investment backing from financial institutions. Women in the agribusiness sector secured contracts to acquire machinery for their growing food-processing business, and even signed on distributors for their products. One Chicago participant now has a partner willing to invest in her business for the purpose of taking advantage of the new African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and a bank she can use to obtain loans for any investment of her choice, provided it is a viable one. The Chicago conference also attracted the involvement and support of Marjory E. Searing, then-Assistant Secretary and Acting Director General of the Commercial Service of the US Department of Commerce. Continuing the precedent set by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, she led a delegation of eleven American business women to northern, eastern and southern Africa. "[W]e came back with real deals," she said. The enthusiasm generated in Chicago still lives. Through the Botswana conference, the American and African business woman continue to build on these successes for greater Africa-America commerce and linkages. |
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 Membership is open to individuals who have an interest in seeing alliances develop between American and African business women, more business opportunities for African business women, and/or more opportunities for American business women to do business in Africa. Click here to access a PDF of the AABWA Membership Application. |
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