The Aids and Obstacles to Africa’s High Rate of Female Entrepreneurship

“The seeds of success in every nation on Earth are best planted in women and children.”
-Former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda

A few empowering byproducts that come from a woman starting her own business include self-sufficiency, financial freedom, and confident independence. Entrepreneurial women forge their own paths and take the futures of themselves and their families into their own hands every day. One such continent where this is increasingly common and renowned is Africa. As Jason Hopps cites in his IFC article, “The Ingredients Helping Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs Succeed,”

“Across Africa, millions of women are running businesses large and small, from CEOs of high-tech firms to the countless number of mama mbogas (‘women selling vegetables’) who can be found selling fruits and vegetables from wooden stalls in almost every neighborhood in Kenya and elsewhere. By some estimates, Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurial activity in the world at about 24 percent.”

Some of the factors aiding this influx of entrepreneurship are IFC’s international initiatives She Wins Africa and Sourcing2Equal which “provide women with the training, networking, and access to markets to grow their businesses.” The persistence and success of women business owners in Africa is not without roadblocks and hindrances. Hopps describes these difficulties thus, “women can struggle with access to childcare, equal pay, and workplace harassment, among other challenges. In some…countries, women still need their husband or male partner to co-sign a loan, mortgage application, or the papers necessary to start a business.” Despite these challenges, women entrepreneurs in Africa power through to support themselves, and wegg® is proud of them all.

“To be a powerful woman means to have the possibility, the right & responsibility to make choices that better oneself & better one’s community.”
-Former First Lady of South Africa, Graça Machel