Denis Opudo
It is quite disturbing that gender gap is still something to fight against in the 10th century especially in Africa. Women are still facing many challenges compared to their male counterparts. Women are still fighting against low access to quality education, lesser funding to businesses under their ownership and worst of all they are still tied to cultural beliefs. The latter hinders them from owning and running their own businesses. All this has led to the widening of their financial gap that is estimated to be more than $20 billion according to African Development Bank.
However, there are women who have worked against all odds to thrive in the business environment according to 2018th Entrepreneur of the Year competition spokesperson Gugu Mjadu. Sanlam is the organizer of the competition. Mjadu says that organizers of Entrepreneur for the Year competition targets to develop on the entrepreneurial achievements every year. They tend to reflect on the achievements made in the last 30 years. The competition does that by rewarding and encouraging women who are changing their communities through business.
She goes ahead and shares out steps that women should take to bridge the wide financial gap for themselves and increase their chances of accessing growth opportunities. The first step she challenges women to have knowledge of their industries before making an investment. Women should know more than just what affects their business. All from the economic microenvironment to macro environment knowledge should be on their figure tips. Furthermore, they should know about the legislative and political landscape in their area of operation.
There is a need for women to partner with their fellow women. When women are in a group they stand a chance of making huge influence than when they operate as an individual. They will have a huge say when agitating for equal funding of businesses. Therefore such partnership should be facilitated by organizations like Businesswomen’s Association. Furthermore, women entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate in such organizations. Women should also look for opportunities that go hand in hand with what founders need. Opportunities are there and there are several investors who are ready to fund businesses owned by women. But women can only access this if their businesses are in line with what the investors want.
