Wetech Women Foundation (Wetech), in partnership with the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, has launched the PitchHer Investment Readiness Programme, an eight-week program aimed at helping early-stage women entrepreneurs in Nigeria prepare to raise investment.
The initiative is supported by the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme (DAP) through the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub.
The programme will select 25 women founders and provide training in financial planning, investor engagement, and pitch development to help them secure funding from angel investors, venture capital firms, and other financiers.
After the first six weeks, participants will present their businesses before a mock investor panel, with six finalists advancing to two weeks of personalised coaching, pitch refinement, and simulated investor sessions.
The finalists will then compete at the Wetech 2026 Flagship Conference, “The Power Shift”, scheduled for September 26, 2026, in Lagos, where they will pitch before more than 2,500 investors and ecosystem stakeholders for a ₦8.5 million prize pool.
According to Gabriella Uwadiegwu, President of Wetech, the programme seeks to address the funding gap facing women-led startups in Africa;
“African startups raised $3.2 billion in funding and only 0.9% went to female-founded teams. These gender gaps compound more than we realise, preventing an additional $229 billion in GDP in Nigeria alone. Our programme is designed to help women building businesses gain access to capital to scale” – Uwadiegwu, Wetech President
The programme is open to Nigeria-based women-founded or co-founded startups at the pre-seed stage with products already in the market. Applicants are expected to have plans to raise funding within the next 12 to 18 months.
Applications close on July 10, 2026, while the programme is scheduled to begin on August 3, 2026.
