Investing in African Women Entrepreneurs: Highlights from Social Capital Markets (SOCAP18)
There is an immense opportunity for economic growth and social impact by investing in Africa women According to McKinsey, the female economy is the world’s largest emerging market, with the potential to add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. Furthermore, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally, with approximately 26% of female adults engaged in entrepreneurial activity. Ghana is producing more female entrepreneurs than any other country, with 46% of businesses being owned by women. However, due to several gender-specific challenges, the African Development Bank estimates a $20B financing gap for African women causing the growth of these businesses to suffer. This year’s annual Social Capital Markets (SOCAP18) Conference, a convening for over 4,000 actors in the development, social entrepreneurship, and impact investors held in San Francisco, discussed the importance of driving investment capital towards social good. Many actors came together to advocate for a greater African presence at this event, as a result, SOCAP18 invested in bringing on partners, such as my company Baobab Consulting, to ensure that African voices were heard and received the appropriate business and strategy advice to make the most out of the conference. Not only was Africa a focus this year, but SOCAP also picked Gender and Markets as a theme with its own track. The community has discussed these issues long before the #MeToo movement, but this year, an entire track was dedicated to hearing from women entrepreneurs, investors and other actors actively working to push the agenda to drive investments to women. To combine these two themes, I organized a panel called “Women’s Entrepreneurship in Africa: The Key to Sustainable Development.” We had two female entrepreneurs, one male, and one female investor, all originating from the continent. The discussion focused on explaining the landscape for African female entrepreneurs and encouraged the audience to value and respect the inputs of women as they build their investment and social impact portfolios. Both Margaret Nyamumbo, Founder of Kahawa1893, and Salem Afangideh, Founder of Thrive African Girl, gave their perspectives as female entrepreneurs. They highlighted the need to value local talent, compensate African women for their expertise, and spread the right narrative to represent them. Salem highlighted that so often, investors will expect the entrepreneur to educate about the African context, but they should be doing their own due diligence to establish mutual respect and build trust. Margaret highlighted that the way in which people are represented matters, and that African women entrepreneurs must build a positive narrative surrounding their work and the opportunities they are creating. James Thuch Madhier, Founder and CEO of the Rainmaker Enterprise, and the only male represented on the panel, told stories of his life as a refugee in South Sudan. “My mother brought me up during the war and we survived because she was entrepreneurial. My entire female ancestry were great leaders so I am proof of the value of African women,” he said. At SOCAP, James was one of the many men present who embodies the #HeforShe mentality, and it is clear women entrepreneurs do have allies, even in a competitive funding ecosystem. A highlight that sticks out comes from Pauline Mbayah, an impact investor and Director, Strategy and Partnerships at the African Enterprise Challenge Fund based in Nairobi. She advised the audience that, “The continent has hope, the continent is on the move, and opportunity exists. We ask [foreign] investors to work with people on the ground to make new opportunities, and match-make your money to opportunities that already exist.” Another takeaway from her is that building smart partnerships with women entrepreneurs on the ground is the best way to invest your money and receive both financial and social returns. Beyond the panel, SOCAP also offered scholarships for African women entrepreneurs to attend the conference. There was an array of talented women, from Ivy Appiah from Ghana, who makes high quality black soap products which are sold across Ghana and Nigeria, to Charlotte Magayi, Co-Founder of Mukuru Clean Stoves, which enables young mothers from low-income households to keep their children safe, save on fuel consumption, and reduce household air pollution in urban slums. As women entrepreneurs, we face a different set of challenges that our male counterparts will never have to face. But one takeaway from SOCAP is that there is a support system seeking to empower women, especially those from Africa, to attract investment and scale their businesses. I look forward to pushing forward their stories and carving spaces across the world to showcase them. Got an article you’d like to share with us? Click here.
Trecia Makhubele: It is ordinary South Africans that will create jobs in SA
[bctt tweet=”Bohochic was born from a desperate need for financial stability” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Born in rural Mpumalanga in a small town called Bushbuckridge, Trecia Makhubele, co-founder of Bohochic, is a graduate from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for girls. In 2016, she went on to achieve her undergraduate degree in Politics and international studies. Trecia is currently a Penultimate year law student at Rhodes University where she tutors law first-yearear students and works as a law library assistant. Trecia is passionate about entrepreneurship and believes that it is ordinary South Africans that will be able to create jobs in SA. SLA contributor Jeanette Nkwana interviewed this young South African entrepreneur, this is how it went. How did Bohochic and your partnership with the co-founder come about? Bohochic, like most black owned businesses in SA, was born from a desperate need for financial stability. Rue, my friend and co-founder, and I found it difficult to go to residence trips to buy appropriate clothing for court visits and textbooks because our parents were just not able to provide us with everything that we needed. Instead of accepting our financial situation, we each started our own businesses, mine being Spiritus Mundi designs and Rue’s being Rude-soul chains, making jewellery. However,separately we were not making enough money to sustain ourselves. We then looked at trends and realised there was a growing fascination for crochet clothing. Having had basic crochet skills, we read blog posts and watched YouTube videos and soon we had a couple of designs. Once we were confident enough with the idea, we abandoned our businesses and used their respective profits to start Bohochic. What are some of the challenges of working with a partner and how do you personally deal with them? For some reason, we both work really well together and have never had any major fights to date. I think it’s all about finding someone you have a good chemistry with. Both Rue and I luckily found that in each other. [bctt tweet=”‘Good chemistry is important in a partnership – Trecia Makhubele’” username=”Spiritus_Mundii”] Another reason we hardly face any challenges in this partnership is the consistent brutal honesty between us. If for example, someone makes something ugly, the other is not afraid to speak up. The receiving party does not take it personally either. It simply becomes a laughing matter! This is perhaps due to the fact that we are also friends and thus know each other well. You value your academic career, how do you deal with the pressures coming from school and entrepreneurship? We made a pact that no matter how big Bohochic gets, we would not let it take up more space in our lives than our academics. At the beginning our timetables allowed us to split our times to ensure our academic lives did not suffer. Of late, the business has become too big as we are now doing post-graduate studies which requires more of our time. This has. undoubtedly, put a lot of pressure on both of us. We have decided to start a skills development programme in Grahamstown which allows us to teach a number of people how to crochet so that they can eventually come on board as our employees and do the actual crocheting. This will lessen our burden of making each order and help families like our own by way of job creation. [bctt tweet=”Bohochic is more than a brand dedicated to making money, we want to uplift our communities” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] You are also a YouTuber, how has this helped with the success of Bohochic? Bohochic is more than just a brand dedicated to making money. It is about showing young people like ourselves that social media can be used to uplift ourselves and communities. Through our tutorials and videos, we hope to get people thinking. We want to show them that there are awesome business ideas that do not require large sums of money to execute. We have been able to fulfill this mandate through our YouTube channel as most of our viewers are students like ourselves. What is the most fulfilling thing about what you do? The financial independence. Nothing is more fulfilling than being able to buy a bus ticket to school or that ridiculously expensive textbook without having to put pressure on our families. What do you think your customers value most about Bohochic? The creativity that goes into the products we make. We do not just make crochet tops, we take the time to research and see what people are into and translate that into each crochet item. [bctt tweet=”Bohochic looking to expand from crochet tops and chokers to Bohochic Kids and Home.” via=”no”] What can we look forward to from Bohochic this year? Growth, lots of it. We have dedicated so much time to improving our craft. This year we will see the finalization and launch of Bohochic Kids and Bohochic Home. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.