Event Report / Lioness Business Agility Series
June marks Youth Month in South Africa, and so as part of the country’s commemoration activities, Lionesses of Africa, in partnership with Absa, hosted a special edition of the Lioness Business Agility Webinars for 2023. The theme of the event focused on “Celebrating inspirational women and youth entrepreneurs,” aimed at inspiring the next generation of young women business builders who are going to play their part in driving economic growth through entrepreneurship in the country. The webinar attracted an audience of 135 women entrepreneurs keen to learn more about how to grow their businesses, fulfill their purpose through entrepreneurship, and make an impact in their sectors and communities.
The 3rd Lioness Business Agility Webinar for 2023 got off to a great start with welcome words from Lioness Business Enterprise Ambassador, Nomalanga Sitole. She introduced the inspirational speaker line up for the morning and the team from Absa. As the banking partner for the Lioness Business Agility Webinars and strategic partner of Lionesses of Africa, Absa shared how the bank is proactively supporting the growth of women entrepreneur-led SMEs in order to further stimulate economic growth and job creation. Ronnie Mbatsane, Managing Executive at Absa, gave an insightful introduction to the work that Absa is doing to support the Lionesses of Africa community. Ronnie is a real champion of women entrepreneurs and understands the power of building growth businesses that make a difference in the country.
Nomalanga Sitole (L), Thuli Zikalala (R)
Nomalanga also introduced the wonderful Thuli Zikalala, founder of Yellow Owl, who once again showed incredible support for deaf audience members in the online audience, providing her invaluable sign language skills and interpreting the programme to make it accessible to everyone. Thuli is a great Lioness and makes the Lioness Business Agility webinar content accessible to deaf women entrepreneurs in South Africa.
Melanie Hawken (L), Ronnie Mbatsane (R)
Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, then spoke about the latest report from UN Women which indicated that achieving full gender equality, one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs - SDG 5), could take close to 300 years if the current rate of progress continues. She reiterated that without significant support and investment, and a major shift in attitude towards empowering women economically and at a societal level, gender equality could take even longer. The goal of meeting SDG5 by the 2030 deadline now looks impossible. Melanie stressed that if we want to achieve gender equality in our lives, our communities, and our countries, we have to show by example what can be done to change the situation by empowering women through entrepreneurship. She encouraged all the Lionesses participating in the webinar to choose to take control of their lives by empowering themselves economically through entrepreneurship - building businesses, creating jobs, contributing to the growth of their communities and to the country. She suggested that by doing so, they are moving the dial forward towards gender equality at a much more rapid pace. Not only that, but they are inspiring and showing the next generation of women entrepreneurs just what’s possible - that through entrepreneurship, it’s possible to fulfill potential, to achieve economic freedom, to take care of family and give back to community.
Ashalia Maharajh
As always at the Lioness Business Agility Webinars, an inspirational woman entrepreneur was invited to come and share her startup story. Reflecting the theme of Women and Youth Entrepreneurs, Ashalia Maharajh, founder of Sivuka Youth was the perfect choice of speaker. Ashalia is a certified Life Coach, SACDA Professional and Insights Accredited Practitioner, and a Learning and Development professional, with over 15 years of experience within HR and Executive Education. At Sivuka, she addresses the far too large unemployment gap through coaching, work readiness training and recruitment for Youth in SA. Her primary aim is to equip the graduates and young employees with the tools they need to succeed in the business world in a way that leads to definitive change in their outlook and behaviour. Ashalia shared her very personal story and entrepreneurial journey of building Sivuka Youth and the inspirational work she and her team are doing to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders in the country.
One of the highlights of the Lioness Business Agility Webinars is always the Panel Discussion featuring inspirational women entrepreneurs who share their stories, knowledge and insights. This time, the conversation focused on Celebrating inspirational women and youth entrepreneurs from our Lionesses of Africa community who represent a new generation of high growth potential businesses in a wide range of sectors. Taking part in the panel discussion were Sinenhlanhla Ndlela, founder of vegan ice cream business, Yococo; Matubatsi Motsoeneng, founder of The Feme Platform supporting working moms; Ayanda Majola, founder of natural cosmetics business, Yanda Cosmetics; and Bontle Tshole, founder of Baaa Health & Luminary Thrivist, a health and wellbeing entrepreneur building a healthy food and drinks brand.
Sinenhlanhla Ndlela, founder of Yococo shared her story of launching her dairy free artisanal ice cream brand back in 2016, and how she has been growing her brand ever since. She also gave an insight into how she is balancing being a new mom, juggling business with raising a family, and also what it takes to build and launch a new FMCG into the market as a young brand and make it all work.
Matubatsi Motsoeneng, founder of The Feme Platform shared how her business is dedicated to making modern mother's lives easier, and to working with female brands to grow jobs. She spoke about how other women entrepreneurs in the audience could learn from her experience and apply those learnings in their own businesses.
Ayanda Majola, founder of Yanda Cosmetics shared her fascinating story of how she built a local beauty brand that specializes in scientific skincare made specifically for sensitive skin. Despite her young age and being a full time health science student, she shared how she has grown her brand in a short space of time, making her products available on online platforms Zando and Takealot. She also told the audience how she has recently signed a deal with an international shopping platform that will stock and sell her products in the United Kingdom.
The final panelist, Bontle Tshole, founder of Baaa Health & Luminary Thrivist, shared her journey of launching her health bar business back in 2017. Today she is working to change the narrative of access to healthy eating by promoting responsible food choices through the provision of healthy quality food, addressing UN Sustainability Development Goal 3. She shared with the audience how they too can achieve greater nutritional health and wellbeing, for themselves and their families.
Nomalanga then addressed two general questions to the panel members, asking them to share their top tips on how to get a brand noticed in the early startup years; and their experience of funding their businesses and successfully navigating that growth as a startup?
Next on the programme was Weli Ntuli, Area Segment Manager – SME, at Absa. She gave a very detailed and practical introduction to the range of products and support services on offer to women entrepreneurs to aid their business building growth journeys.
A Q & A session then encouraged questions directly from the online audience, with all the panelists, together with the guest speaker, Ashalia, providing a range of answers and advice as requested. It was a lively discussion and one that inspired audience members to take their own businesses and brands to the next level of growth.
Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, then wrapped up the morning with some closing remarks and a call to action for all the women entrepreneurs in the audience to keep sharing, inspiring and connecting with each other for growth. Nomalanga then thanked all the guest speakers and panelists and encouraged everyone to put a date in the diary for the special Women’s Month edition of Lioness Business Agility Webinar in August 2023.