Awards & Accolades
The South African sustainable luxury product design brand, The Joinery, based in the Cape Winelands and founded by Natalie and Kim Ellis, has just been recognised as a gold award winner at the Eco-Logical Awards. The brand picked up the Gold Eco-Logic Award in the Eco-Fashion and Lifestyle category, sponsored by Pick n’ Pay Clothing. This latest accolade is a testament to the Joinery team’s unwavering commitment to sustainability. Renowned for its beautifully designed range of sustainable products, use of responsible fabrics, and ethical production, The Joinery has won fans around the world for many years for its passionate belief in being kind to our planet and fair to our people, one plastic bottle at a time.
Award Winner
In recognition of her courageous leadership and impact in the field of public health and gorilla conservation in Uganda, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health and Gorilla Conservation Coffee, is one of three winners of the 2022 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize!
Awards & Accolades
Rwanda-based eco-friendly shoe brand, UZURI K & Y, which uses recycled tires from sub-Saharan Africa and employs local young people, has been announced as the joint winner of the 2021 Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge. Kevine Kagirimpundu, co-founder and CEO of UZURI K & Y together with Ysolde Shimwe, CFO & Co-Creative designer, were awarded the prize of € 100,000. Speaking about the recognition and award win, Kevine said: “We are honored to be the winner of the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge. This opportunity provided us with mentorship and strategic guidance, and a platform for sharing our dream of bringing sustainable shoe options from Africa to the global market. We are dedicated to creating a real impact and inspiring young people today to build a cleaner future.” The other join winner was Lalaland, a Dutch-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate customized and comprehensive synthetic models of different ethnic groups, which was also awarded € 100,000.
Awards and Accolades
The New Generation Digital Awards took place in South Africa in September 2021, a ceremony to recognize and honour independent social and digital media campaigns and initiatives in the country. MC for this year’s awards was the renowned South African Actress, Singer and Songwriter; Relebogile Mabotja, who announced this year’s Silver award for Best Use of a Podcast/Vlog to Promote a Brand or Event going to the Blind History Podcast, produced by CliffCentral.com and Taylor Blinds and Shutters, with sign language interpretation by Thuli Zikalala and Yellow Owl.
Awards and Accolades
Marta Vânia Uetela is the founder of BioMec in Mozambique, an organisation that produces high performance prostheses made of recycled plastic from the ocean. Her inspirational work has garnered her global attention, and she has just been recognized with the Commonwealth Point of Light 193 Award, presented to her on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Award Winner
Infinite Foods, Africa’s premier go-to-market platform for leading plant-based food brands, cofounded by entrepreneur Michelle Adelman, was awarded the “Best Plant-Based Business” Award at the FoodBev Media World Plant-Based Awards in association with Plant Based World on 2 October 2020. This award comes on the eve of Infinite Foods’ second anniversary and continued growth with several new international and local brands joining the portfolio. As the only African business to be included in the awards, this is an incredible recognition of the growth of the plant-based industry on the continent.
VW Lionesses Den Competition
Volkswagen South Africa in partnership with Lionesses of Africa, are thrilled to announce the winners of the VW Lionesses Den competition. The panel of judges have selected the top three pitches after calling on women-owned businesses all over South Africa to share a two-minute pitch to win a total of R175,000 cash injection for their businesses. The winners will use the capital to invest in their businesses and in turn, help drive the South African economy forward.
Awards and Accolades
Emerging technology company, Niche Integrated Solutions, a100% Black women owned business, has won the Innocentrix South African Innovation League 2020 in the small enterprises category. The award was presented at a special ceremony held on 27 August 2020.
Awards and Accolades
The 2020 Laureates of the Cartier Women’s Initiative have just been announced, and the inspirational LifeBank Founder, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, has just been named as the Sub-Saharan African Laureate. LifeBank is a medical distribution company that uses data and technology to discover and deliver essential medical products to hospitals in Nigeria.
Awards and Accolades
This week, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), headed by social entrepreneur and renowned gorilla conservationist, Dr Gladys Zikusoka, has been announced the winner of the prestigious St Andrews Prize for the Environment 2020. The prize was set up by the University of St Andrews and ConocoPhillips in 1998 to recognize significant contributions to environmental conservation.
Awards and Accolades
The International Chocolate Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for the chocolate world, have recently taken place, and Zambia’s Savanna Premium Chocolate, founded by entrepreneur Chiinga Musonda and Lynn Musonda Phiri, has scooped a top prize.
Awards and Accolades
The Kenya Beauty and Cosmetics Industry Awards 2019 took place in December to recognize and celebrate key milestones and excellence in the hair, beauty and cosmetics industry in the country. Leading Kenyan beauty brand, Suzie Beauty, founded by successful entrepreneur Suzie Wokabi, took home a host of awards at the event. The company emerged winners in the following categories: Best Lipstick, Blush, Powder and Local Cosmetics Brand of the Year!! Suzie Beauty were also 1st Runners up in the Most Preferred Eye Shadow, Lip Gloss, Concealer, Primer, and Mascara Brand Of the Year.
Award Winner
The results of Kenya’s Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies Survey, an initiative of KPMG Kenya and Nation Media Group, have just been announced. The survey identified the country’s fastest growing, medium sized companies in order to showcase business excellence and highlight some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurship stories. Flora Mutahi, founder of Melvin’s Tea, was awarded with the prestigious Top Manufacturing Award at a special ceremony on 5 December.
Award Winner
Malawi’s greatest fashion export and award winning design entrepreneur, Lilly Alfonso, has been honoured with a UMP Fashion Living Legend Award. The award presentation took place at the 2019 UMP Awards music and fashion blended event held on 14 December at the Crossroads Hotel, Blantyre, Malawi.
Award Winners
On the evening of 25 November 2019, the city of Kigali in Rwanda played host to a very special event, coordinated to recognize the achievements of one hundred East African women entrepreneurs. These impact driven women were announced as the winners of the inaugural 2019 2X Invest2Impact. The event was part of the Global Gender Summit 2019. 2X Invest2Impact was organized and launched by the development finance institutions (DFIs) of Canada (FinDev Canada), the United Kingdom (CDC Group plc), France (Proparco) and the United States (OPIC), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
Award Winner
The 6th Mozambique Gas Summit & Exhibition has just taken place on 13 to 14 November. One of the highlights of this year’s event was a special awards ceremony to honour the 2019 Mozambique Industry Award Winners. The prestigious Outstanding Woman of the Year Award was presented to Eugenia Langa, CEO and Founder of NWEBA. Nweba is the first Mozambican Company dedicated to Procurement and Logistics for the sectors of Construction, Oil & Gas, Mining and Energy, and has a team of certified International Procurement Professionals with more than 10 years of experience. The company prides itself on providing a market solution to the challenges of these sectors in Mozambique.
Award Winners
At the prestigious 74th UN General Assembly in New York, which took place from 28th September to 3rd October, an important event took place on the sidelines - the MIPAD (Global Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent) Recognition Week for the Class of 2019. Amongst this year’s honorees were two outstanding and inspirational women entrepreneurs from the Lionesses of Africa community, Nkemdilim Begho and Ola Brown, recognised in the Class of 2019 Business and Entrepreneurship Category.
Awards and Accolades
The inaugural Kenya E-Commerce Awards 2019 took place this month amidst much fanfare, with successful local companies being recognized for their excellence and innovation in online business platforms and models. Teresa Lubano, founder of The Nanjala Company, an online specialist store for gifts centered on potted plants and accessories, scooped the E-Commerce Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
The prestigious Fashion’s Finest Africa Awards 2019 have just taken place, and two leading women entrepreneurs from the Lionesses of Africa community have scooped the top two awards. Bag Designer of the Year 2019 went to Femi Olayebi, founder of Femi Handbags and Accessories of the Year 2019 went to Anita Quansah, founder of Anita Quansah London.
Solar Sister, the company that has spent the last decade helping bring clean energy to rural homes in Africa, and founded by Katherine Lucey its CEO, has now earned global recognition courtesy of an international award for projects and organizations dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Solar Sister is one of two winners of the 2019 Keeling Curve Prize for energy access, an honor that comes with $25,000 that the nonprofit plans to use to continue supporting local, female entrepreneurs with clean energy businesses in Africa.
The CEO of EbonyLife Media, Mo Abudu, has been recognized for her significant contribution to the media industry and awarded the 2019 Médailles d’Honneur at the MIPTV ceremony in Cannes, France, on April 8, 2019. She makes history as the first African and Nigerian recipient of this prestigious award, given to senior executives who have made their mark in the global television industry, as well as contributed to the development of the international television community.
The globally renowned and multi-award winning Malawian fashion designer, Lilly Alfonso, founder of the luxury fashion brand that carries her name, has just been globally recognized for her work once again. This week, Lilly was invited to attend the 5th Edition Summer 2019 International Fashion Awards in Cairo, Egypt where she was honoured for her work and her luxury fashion brand.
The annual Forbes Woman Africa Awards took place on the evening of 8 March in Durban, South Africa. One of the highlights of the event was the official recognition of Dr Divine Ndhlukula, founder of Securico in Zimbabwe, as the winner of the prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Award.
Getting global public and industry acknowledgement for your products is always rewarding, and that is certainly the case for multi-award winning entrepreneur and renowned gorilla conservationist, Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka. Her new social enterprise, Gorilla Conservation Coffee, has just been awarding with a top ranking in the prestigious Coffee Review Top 30 Coffees ranking in the USA.
Mo Abudu, founder and CEO of EbonyLife Media in Nigeria, has been recognized for outstanding services to broadcasting and enterprise, by the University of Westminster in London. She was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts.
This year’s Southern Africa Startup Awards have just been judged for South Africa, and the prestigious Female Rolemodel in Tech award in the country has been given to Lynette Hundermark, founder of specialist mobile solutions consultancy, Useful & Beautiful.
The Margaret Hirsch 2018 Regional Women in Business Achiever of the Year Awards Evening took place at Emperor’s Palace in Gauteng, South Africa on 2 November. This prestigious event saw over 500 people, including top entrepreneurs and business women from around Gauteng attending the event to see who would be announced as the Regional and Branch winners. The event was co-sponsored by GRUNDIG, one of Hirsch's Homestore's most valued suppliers. Guest Speaker at the event was Melanie Hawken, the founder and CEO of Lionesses of Africa and a Champion of Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs.
Awards and Accolades
This is an exciting time for South African entrepreneur Benji Coetzee and her company Empty Trips, which is on a mission to make cargo transportation more eco and cost efficient. The company has just received some valued recognition through a number of exciting global awards.
At the heart of every great business is a creative solution to a problem—and those solutions sometimes change the world. To assemble TIME’s first annual list of ‘The 50 Most Genius Companies of 2018’, it asked its global network of editors and correspondents to nominate businesses that are inventing the future. Then we evaluated candidates on key factors, including originality, influence, success and ambition. The result: 50 companies that are driving progress now, and bear watching for what they do next. The Wonderbag, created by Sarah Collins, is one of those companies to make the Top 50 list.
Native Child, the visionary natural beauty and hair-care brand founded by Sonto Pooe in South Africa, triumphed with multiple industry award wins to round out a successful year. Sonto scooped up double Gold Awards at the prestigious Gold Pack Awards held on 21 November 2023 which are known for recognizing innovation in packaging. The honors were bestowed upon Native Child for their outstanding Hair Colour bottle design, a creation attributed to the ingenuity of Sonto Pooe herself. Sonto and Native Child have been on a winning streak with the brand also securing the Clicks Supplier Enterprise Development (SED) Award for 2023 the same month.