The Portuguese Industrial Association (AIP), in partnership with Helpo and the Camões Institute, has launched a new initiative to empower 400 young women in Mozambique through structured business training, aiming to stimulate local enterprise and harness the potential of the country’s youth.
Under the banner of the InFormar Project, this forward-looking program is designed to equip girls who have completed secondary education but are currently neither employed nor in further education with the skills and knowledge to carve viable pathways into entrepreneurship.
The project spans Mozambique’s north and south economic corridors, with pilot activities currently underway in the commercial hub of Maputo and the fast-growing city of Nampula.
According to AIP, the initiative is more than a skills-building program; it is a strategic intervention that seeks to “design, implement, and validate a replicable model” for female youth economic activation in sub-Saharan Africa.
With a scheduled timeline extending through 2026, the project is being financed by the Camões Institute Portugal’s development cooperation arm and implemented on the ground by Helpo, a development NGO with a longstanding presence in the region.
“This program is rooted in the belief that the future of Mozambique’s economy lies in the hands of its young entrepreneurs, particularly young women who have historically been excluded from formal economic participation,” said Jorge Gaspar, Head of AIP’s Consultancy Unit and the lead on the project.
Gaspar underscored the initiative’s market-oriented focus, emphasizing that the business plans developed through the program will not be theoretical exercises, but bankable blueprints for sustainable enterprise.
“We are not merely teaching entrepreneurship,” he said. “We are cultivating business leaders whose ventures will meet local demand, generate employment, and enhance economic resilience in their communities.”
The training program will combine theoretical instruction with hands-on mentoring, financial literacy education, and exposure to Mozambique’s formal business ecosystems. Participants will be encouraged to develop businesses aligned with local market dynamics from agribusiness and retail to creative industries and digital services.
Observers see the program as a timely intervention in a country where youth unemployment remains persistently high and the informal economy dominates. With Mozambique’s economic recovery showing tentative signs of acceleration, initiatives like InFormar could prove pivotal in bridging the gap between education and employment for thousands of school-leavers.
More broadly, this initiative reinforces Portugal’s growing strategic interest in Lusophone Africa, particularly in capacity building and SME development. For Mozambique, it marks a significant step toward cultivating a new generation of female-led micro-enterprises that could redefine the landscape of local industry.
As global attention increasingly shifts toward inclusive growth and sustainable development, InFormar stands as a pragmatic yet visionary model for how international cooperation can drive meaningful grassroots entrepreneurship one young woman at a time.
