The ZW Proposal Process

$AECF Zimbabwe\\\'s Great Business Ideas deserve serious investment$

General Terms and Conditions

Please ensure you have registered online as an applicant before completing your online application.

The AECF chooses the projects/business ideas for its Zimbabwe Window on the basis of eligibility and selection criteria:

AECF Zimbabwe Window Eligibility Criteria

The AECF’s Zimbabwe Window (AECF ZW) eligibility criteria are as follows:

The lead applicant must be a private, for-profit, firm. Please see the FAQs section of our general website for our definition of private, for-profit, firms.
The total funds requested (Grant + Repayable Grant) must be greater than US$250,000 and no more than US$1,500,000.
The company and its partners must provide matching funds equal to, or greater than, 40% of the total cost of the project. The AECF ZW aims to leverage its funds and thus applications where companies provide a higher % of the funds from their own resources will be treated more favourably. Similarly, applications with a greater repayable grant % will have a greater chance of winning.
The request must be for a specific, new and innovative business idea in Zimbabwe in one or other of the two sectors supported by the AECF ZW – Agribusiness and Rural Financial Services. The AECF ZW will also support information and media services business ideas where they relate to the AECF ZW’s two core sectors of agribusiness and rural financial services.

AECF ZW Selection Criteria

The AECF ZW selects business ideas on the basis of our assessment of their contribution to the AECF’s ZW aims and objectives. The assessment process is carried out in a transparent manner by the Fund Manager supported by a team of independent assessors with the final decisions being made by an Independent Investment Committee. Our objective assessment of the business ideas received is based on the following selection criteria:

Capacity of the company to implement the business idea (25%)
Business case (25%)
Development benefits (35%)
Innovation (10%)
Additionality (5%)

These criteria are explained in greater detail in the application form.

The competition for AECF ZW funds is a two stage process:

Stage One. Initial Application/Concept Note stage: The first step is the submission of this online application form (if you have any technical problems please use the help feature to contact AECF) setting out the business idea being proposed to the AECF ZW for funding. Please keep your responses brief. Once the application form has been received by the AECF, you will receive an email acknowledgement with your unique application number. Please quote this number in all future communication with the AECF.

Stage Two. Business Plan/Full application stage: If the AECF’s ZW Investment Committee judge that your application is among the best received, you will be asked to complete and submit a full business plan for your business idea. You will also be asked to:

Complete a standard AECF ZW Business Plan form with associated Annexes
Provide Company Articles of Association
Provide Certified/Audited Accounts for the last 2 years (for new companies we may request audited accounts of investors or other means that demonstrate the track record and capability of the investors)
Submit other supporting documents as may be requested by AECF ZW

Applicants are requested to note the following:

1. The AECF ZW is a competition and not everyone can be a winner. In previous competitions we have received many applications and the competition for AECF funds has been tough. Please think about your application carefully, take note of the AECF’s ZW selection criteria, and demonstrate clearly why your business idea justifies AECF ZW support.

2. The AECF ZW response. We will acknowledge all applications received and provide standard letters of acceptance/rejection to all applicants.

3. Fund Manager Engagement. At the initial application stage we judge applications solely on the quality of the written application form. We engage with and visit all applicants that reach Stage Two (the Business Plan stage).

4. AECF ZW Decision making. The initial applications to the AECF ZW will be assessed by a small team of independent assessors and the Fund Manager who will decide which business ideas will progress to the business plan stage. The AECF’s ZW independent Investment Committee will decide which business plans will receive funding from the AECF ZW.

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