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Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum, The idea that has ignited the imagination andspirit of businesswomen across Africa

By Patricia Handley

The idea that has ignited the imagination and spirit of businesswomen across Africa to come together to make the first Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum 2008 a reality, is simple:  It is the economic potential of African women.

This is the flame that inspired Madelein Mkunu to form the Leading Women of Africa organisation, and became encapsulated in her vision for a regular forum to provide a networking platform for African businesswomen and to showcase trade and investment opportunities.

Ms Mkunu conceptualised the forum in November 2007, after establishing the Feminar Business Network in Cape Town, South Africa., earlier in the year. Ms Mkunu chose the theme of “Women, Africa Economic Growth Reserves” for the first forum after reading a World Bank Institute study that confirmed the “enormous” unexploited potential among African women, especially, she said.

The idea of the forum spread like wildfire across the continent, mobilising businesswomen, government departments, organisations, dignitaries and individuals to support the initiative.

Less than six months on, the first Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum comes together this week with delegates from all five regions of the African continent. The countries that will be represented include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Guinea, Senegal, South Africa, and more. In addition, government delegations are attending from the Nigerian Department of Women’s Affairs and from the DRC’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

The guiding principle of the forum, that the economic empowerment of Africa’s women has the potential to transform both themselves and their continent, is no meagre notion.

Just a glimpse of the diverse implications of developing women economically is evident in the writings of a key-note speaker at the forum, Dr Amany Asfour, President of the Egyptian Business Women’s Association (EBWA). Dr Asfour’s publications suggest hope for peace-making and for governance, too, with titles such as “Africa/Middle East: Building Bridges Through Economic Empowerment of Women and Young Women Entrepreneurship Promotion” and “Women Empowerment for Achievement of Democracy and Good Governance in Africa”.

The belief in the economic potential of women resonates through the genesis of the forum and is evident among the individual exhibitors, speakers who will address the forum, the presentations, and the many organisations who are lending support through partnerships and in funding. They include Top Women in Business and Government, African Connexion and Black Beauties in Business magazines and the South African Women Entrepreneurs’ Network (Sawen).

The presentation that Agatha CJ Johnson’s Africaribe Micro Enterprise Network (AMEN) is bringing from Pennsylvania in the United States of America is entitled, simply, “Africa can compete in the global economy”.

AMEN promotes small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME) development in Africa and alerts American investors to the economic potential of Africa. AMEN will conduct a conference and training in Tanzania in July 2008 with the aim, among other things, of formalising the informal sector and strengthening MSMEs. According to the conference synopsis, AMEN’s awareness-raising campaign in America includes highlighting the role of MSMEs in creating employment and alleviating poverty.

Women
Yet the fact is that women face particular challenges, both in Africa and in the business sphere. There are attitudes and perceptions that businesswomen have to deal with, as Nomsa Nkata, Western Cape Chairperson of Sawen, points out.

“Firstly, there are challenges you face in just being a woman. People don’t take you seriously, and women have to work much harder than their male counterparts,” Ms Nkata said.

“That makes things difficult in the business world,” she said. “If male businessmen struggle to get finance from financial institution, how much more difficult is it for women?”

Decision-making is often affected by traditional gender views that pertain in social and corporate spheres, as Professor Ashley Smyth of African Leadership Centre in Cape Town observes. “Those views are based on an expectation of certain roles and functions that men and women must fulfil in society,” he said.

“Sadly, it is frequently the case that there is some social discomfort when trying to connect the terms ‘woman’ and ‘business’,” Professor Smyth said.

In addressing the issues relating to women conducting business in Africa, the Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum deliberations embrace the topics of Women, Africa Economic Growth Reserves; Trading in Africa; Trade and Investment Opportunities, and the Impact of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa on the Continent.

There are many sub-themes, besides.

The spirit of entrepreneurship looms large as a major forum theme. A keynote speaker at the forum is Cameroonian Françoise Foning, World President of Les Femmes Chefs d’Enterprises Mondiales (FCEM), the World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (WAWE). FCEM is an association representing women business owners from more than 60 countries globally. FCEM has existed since 1945. Another keynote speaker at the forum is Dr Anna Mokgokong, the President of the South African Department of Trade and Industry’s organisation for women entrepreneurs, Sawen.

Other organisations represented at the forum include the Egyptian Business Women’s Association (EBWA) and the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW). The latter has a membership of nine million rural women from 70 countries that include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

The value of networking is another salient forum theme. Exhibitor George Chirume is a Cape Town beadwork artist. Chirume refers to the usefulness of networking when he relates the history of Visionwires, a small community project based in Cape Town that manufactures wire, tin and beadwork arts. Visionwires started out in 2005 as two or three people selling wire and beadwork crafts at weekend markets.

“We starting to get more and more orders from companies, and I set up my web site in 2005. From there I started networking, like joining Cape Town Tourism,” Chirume said. Now the project consists of ten people and operates from a workshop rented in the Du Noon informal settlement. Visionwires produces crafts for the tourism, home-ware and corporate markets.

How women further both themselves and other women in business is another prominent feature of the stories that make up the Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum 2008. Among the first dignitaries to support the event was the Queen Mother, Dr Semane Bonolo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng nation of South Africa. Dr Molotlegi agreed to address the opening Gala Dinner.

Role models
Dr Molotlegi is an outstanding role model and leader who has initiated and supported numerous ventures in poverty alleviation, women’s empowerment and community development. Being Southern African Area President of the ACWW organisation of rural women is among her responsibilities.

Emerging businesswoman Boitumelo Mofokeng of Shoebby SA also bears out the principles of networking and of empowering other women in business. Shoebby SA is exhibiting a unique lifestyle product, the Shoebby shoe organiser.

There is a youthful aspect to the Shoebby SA story, since Ms Mofokeng enlisted two young women as partners in her enterprise. They are both B. Comm graduates, one working for a financial institution and the other employed as a marketing specialist for a multinational company.

Another dimension to Shoebby SA is how it employs computer and Internet technology. “Our business is thriving on E-mail promotions and a concerted marketing effort using technology,” Ms Mofokeng said.

“So we are also doing something for the future, because the woman of 45 and over who has a bit of technology and computer skills can make a thriving, self-made business.” In this manner women could make some provision for their retirement years.

The variety of obstacles and difficulties that women face in the economic sphere in Africa is evident in the skills and experience that individual speakers and delegates bring to the forum. For instance, in the prolific output of literature by Dr Asfour is evident a concern with the particular challenges that face businesswomen in the Middle East and Arab and Islamic worlds.

Awards
A highlight of the forum is the conferment of the First Leading Women of Africa Awards at the Gala Dinner being hosted by Sawen at the close of the forum on Wednesday May 21. Ms Elizabeth Thabethe, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, is handing over the awards. The five categories in which they are being made accord with the most critical challenges pertaining to women on the continent. These categories are Peace-making and Unity Building, Economic Development, Women’s Empowerment, Women’s Health and Women’s Education and Literacy.

The recognition that the awards confer on women acknowledges the outstanding leadership they have already shown and the contributions that they have made to the development of Africa in those critical areas of concern.

What is to be done?
The global scenario presents wider challenges again. When Ms Foning took up leadership of the FCEM global women entrepreneurs’ network as world president in 2006, she referred to the context of internationalisation and the globalisation of trade. Factors that Ms Foning said the association’s membership needed to employ to enhance their businesses’ performance in the light of these circumstances were: Market opportunities, partnerships, networking and dynamism.

Ms Foning’s message to the FCEM membership also urged small and medium-sized enterprises to harness “the powers of creativity, good management; competitiveness and international access” to deal with large and multi-national global enterprises.

The answer to the many obstacles that women face in the business realm is unity, organisation, lobbying and advocacy, according to Ms Nkata of Sawen. “I think the solution really is for women to talk in one voice,” she said.

“We just need a chance. If we all speak in one voice, then we have the capacity. So we (at Sawen) organise and advocate.” Sawen had, for instance, argued for a percentage of government work and procurements to be allocated to women.

Similar concerns are held by Leading Women of Africa’s Ms Mkunu when she refers to the following causes, among others, for the low economic position of women on the African continent: Lack of economic empowerment, ignorance of their own potential, and a lack of unity.

An area in which women will be able to develop their skills at the forum is that of leadership. The Cornerstone Christian College is presenting an academy of seminars aimed at enabling women to assess and hone their leadership skills and capabilities for the business environment.

Meanwhile the Dr Mokgokong, the President of Sawen, is addressing forum delegates on the women’s fund as a new way to accelerate the economic empowerment of women in Africa.

Now
A central aim of the forum is showcasing the opportunities that exist for economic development pertaining to women on the continent. According to at least one exhibitor, the timing is perfect now.

Riad Amid, Marketing Manager of forum exhibitor Zhauns Business Opportunity and Engineering Group, attests to enormous economic potential in South Africa and Africa. Mr Amid was “blown away” by the interest in the company’s products after a recent trip to Nigeria.

“It is fascinating to see how the entrepreneurial spirit flows thick and fast through the continent,” Amid said.

“Africa is extremely under-developed when it comes to manufacturing,” he pointed out. This meant that there were now opportunities in Africa that had existed in South Africa 20 years ago.

Aim
At the outset, Ms Mkunu stressed the forum objective. This was “to bring women of Africa together in order find economic strategies that will enhance the economic advancement of the African continent,” she said.

“Women of Africa need to get more organised and create more business initiatives such as joint ventures, partnerships and collective economic associations for a strong sustainability,” she added.

“In that way, we are more likely to grow sustainable businesses that will have a significant impact on the African economy,” she said.

With the first Leading Businesswomen of Africa Forum underway, a platform to encourage that has been established.