the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
by Vuyelwa Gxakushe
As we reach the mid-year mark, the end-of-season sale frenzy is upon us. Customers are on the hunt for great deals, seeking quality products at unbeatable prices. For SMEs, this is a crucial period to capture attention and boost sales. Here's how to ensure your business stands out and thrives during this competitive season.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
One of the many joys of working at Lionesses of Africa is that we have membership in so many different industries, from Fashion and Beauty, to Security, to Health, to Agro-processing, to Construction, to Road Building, to PR and Marketing, to Tech in its many forms, to…, no day is the same. There are also a number of Lionesses who have built and are building marketplaces. Not so simple as we might think. There are so many issues to think about - and assumptions that will be hopeless and overnight just wipeout their dream. Here’s a hint - ‘If I build it, they will come’, never works. Welcome to the world of the Chicken and the Egg.
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Matubatsi Motsoeneng, CEO & founder, The Feme Platform and Femme Foodie Lover (South Africa)
Startup Story
Matubatsi Motsoeneng is the CEO and founder of The Feme Platform and Femme Foodie Lover in South Africa. She's a passionate entrepreneur, facilitator, and coach, dedicated to making modern mothers’ lives easier. Matubatsi aims to expand The Feme Platform internationally, internally, and work with female brands worldwide to grow employment.
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Jumoke Dada
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Taeillo, Nigeria’s first e-commerce furniture business to enhance customer experience through augmented virtual reality
Jumoke Dada is an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, and the founder of Taeillo, an e-commerce furniture and lifestyle brand based in Lagos Nigeria and Nairobi Kenya. By the age of 26, she had built a muti-million-dollar furniture and lifestyle brand from zero capital a couple of years prior. An advocate and a role model for women’s empowerment, Jumoke is an inspiration to a lot of upcoming women and entrepreneurs in Nigeria and outside the country. Elle Decoration South Africa named her as one of the creatives doing something interesting on the continent at the moment. Taeillo was launched in 2018 and today employs 99 people.
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Victoria Haihambo, founder, Agelvipa Online (Namibia)
Startup Story
Victoria Haihambo is a Founder of a startup called Agelvipa Online in Namibia. She is also a Startup Business Coach and an Author. Her business aims to support micro women vendors by linking them to the market and offering them business management training. She founded the business in 2019 and to date has offered support to over two hundred women through training, mentorship and helping them to create business linkages. Over the past two years, she has received several start-up entrepreneurship awards, both nationally and internationally, and was inducted into the Namibia Business Hall of Fame as an Emerging Entrepreneur in 2020. In addition to these achievements, Victoria is a published author and has published her first book, the highly sought after Women’s Persistence (2019). This was followed by her current book, published in September 2019, titled ‘’The Journey To and From Wealth’’ in which she combined fiction with an element of entrepreneurship and wealth, and the pros and cons that come with it.
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Ellen Tshidi Cooper, Founder & CEO, Conscious Lifestyle Collective (South Africa)
Startup Story
Ellen Tshidi Cooper is the Founder and CEO of Conscious Lifestyle Collective, a South African, eco-friendly marketplace connecting conscious sellers and conscious shoppers. She is a social entrepreneur at heart, her business is more than just about making a profit but takes care of people and the planet. She holds an Honours Degree in business and also works as a Branding and Website Designer for startups and small businesses through her design studio ellecooper.co.
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Impact Partner Content: Absa / by Lesego Mpakanyane, Sector Specialist, Relationship Banking: Wholesale and Retail Sector, Absa
One of the features of our globalized world is the level at which we are able to trade across borders due to easy and convenient eCommerce trade with a value of $2 trillion in 2019, or R33.66 trillion ($/R16.82 as at the time of publishing).
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Impact Partner Content: Absa / by Absa Business Banking
An ecommerce strategy is vital, but the relevance of your offering remains key. Internet traffic has increased by 50% during the COVID-19 crisis, but ecommerce conversion rates are dropping. Having the right channels are key, but at the same time, constant re-evaluation of the relevance of your proposition will sustain your business in the long run.
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Shaden Abushaera, founder of HeraCloset Online (Algeria)
Startup Story
Shaden Abushaera, founder of HeraCloset Online, knows what her customers want when looking for clothing that meets their lifestyle needs. Her dream was simple; to create a new world of self-expression for independent local artists and to help them sell their creations in a meaningful way.
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Aramide Ajayi, founder of Futureshoppers (Nigeria)
Startup Story
Being laser-focused on making shopping for children easier for busy parents was the inspiration to start a business for Aramide Ajayi, founder of Futureshoppers in Nigeria. Today, her e-commerce platform is a one stop shop for children’s products.
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Natasha Buchler and Annie Rudnick, co-founders Akojo Market (UK)
Entrepreneur co-founders, Natasha Buchler and Annie Rudnick, have just launched Akojo Market, a new online platform dedicated to raising awareness of talented design talent from across the African continent, and connecting them to global buyers. Since going live on 1 April 2019, Akojo Market has built a community of incredibly talented designers and loyal customers, all committed to shopping ethically and supporting independent business promoting African culture and development. This entrepreneurial duo sell products from 19 designers, 17 are female founded businesses. The product ranges come from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, DRC, South Africa and Morocco.
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Nkatha Gitonga and Mbula Nzuki
Everyone loves a good story, and for today’s conscious consumers, getting to know more about the backstory of the brands and products they buy is increasingly important. Nkatha Gitonga, a Kenyan entrepreneur and founder of Yakutti, is using the power of storytelling to advance the identity of African design.
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Adiam Emnay & Anne-Sophie Wass, founders of DUBARUBA
If you have an idea and dream then just realise it....
- Adiam Emnay & Anne-Sophie Wass are the co-founders of DUBARUBA, an eCommerce platform based in Austria showcasing the work of some of Africa’s most talented designers and brands to a discerning European marketplace. The name DUBARUBA comes from a village located a few miles south of the Eritrean capital of Asmera and the company is a celebration of the vast and diverse universe of African designers, artists, and brands. It pays tribute to the creativity of young talented designers and artists, most of whom are undiscovered by the world at large. The products presented on DUBARUBA are carefully selected by the team and most are unique handmade items that come from small producers.
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Anila Mussá, founder of IZYSHOP (Mozambique)
There is often a challenge in Africa for small to medium sized producers, particularly in the agricultural sector, finding access to markets, and in turn consumers finding access to greater choice in the marketplace. One Mozambican entrepreneur, Anila Mussá, and her business IZYSHOP, is trying to do something to solve this problem in her country.
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Faith Phoshoko, founder of The Flair Collection (South Africa)
Having an eye and flair for fashion, combined with an interest in proactively supporting women designers from around the world, led South African entrepreneur Faith Phoshoko to start her own online fashion retail business, The Flair Collection.
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Helen Njoroge, founder of Tenders Kenya
One of the biggest challenges for many women entrepreneurs is finding new business opportunities. One women-led startup, Tenders Kenya, is looking to make a difference by connecting women entrepreneurs with new business opportunities by providing access to the tender environment in the country.
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Driven by a desire to see the growth of Black-owned brands in their country, South Africa, combined with a deep affinity to their continent, two women entrepreneurs, Nobuntu Webster and Sibahle Malunga, have launched “My African Buy”, a new online marketplace offering products owned and manufactured by African entrepreneurs.
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Nobesuthu Ndlovu, co-founder of Burgundy Fly (South Africa)
Building a successful fashion retail showcase brand is no small feat, and requires endless amounts of energy and passion, not to mention a great eye for detail and the knack of selecting the best designs for different marketplaces. However, Nobesuthu Ndlovu, the co-founder of Burgundy Fly, is a great example of a woman entrepreneur who has all these skills and more, and together with her business partner and husband, is building an exciting fashion retail company.
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Mellisa Mazinga, founder of zedlabel (Zimbabwe)
The African fashion industry is definitely on the move, and in Zimbabwe one woman fashion retail-preneur is realising her vision to put the country’s fashion designers on the map, and create an innovative online retail fashion outlet to showcase their work. Mellisa Mazingi and her company zedlabel, is an African fashion-preneur with a big vision and big ideas - a name to watch on the continent.
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Tamara Watkins, co-founder of shopDOKU.com
One of the key challenges often facing talented and ambitious African women fashion designers is how to access global markets and successfully position their brands to international buyers. Tamara Watkins and her business partner Akila Hunte have a solution - their passion for raising awareness of emerging design talent, particularly from the African continent, led the team to set up an online marketplace, shopDOKU.com, retailing the creations of emerging designers to buyers in North America and the United Kingdom.
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