the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Loving the Cape-Town based ethical fashion label, designing, printing and handweaving luxury 100% Cashmere scarves. Click to visit.
Loving the 100% natural and organic products formulated by the dynamic South African sister founders, Christine and Louiza. All their products are produced according to the standards of internationally recognised organic certification bodies. Click to visit.
Loving the highly original 'Motique' from which dynamic husband and wife team, Bianca and Khaya Sibiya, retail their uber-trendy Punk and Ivy clothing brand. Click to visit.
Loving the latest designs that this dynamic design team of Nahida, Nadia and Olga took on the road to showcase in Kenya this June. Click to visit.
Loving the wonderful new range of truffle-based gourmet products being produced by Cape Town-based foodpreneur, Amanta Hooman. Click to visit.
Loving the 'Bone Couture' collection of Cape Town-based Smith Jewellery especially this 'Gilt Talon and Onyx Necklace'. Click to visit.
Loving the latest collection of luxurious handcrafted bags by the hugely talented Ghanaian designer, Akosua Afriyie-Kumi, being retailed by Anthropologie in the USA. Click to visit.
Loving the exciting fashion showcased during the BOLD World Tour that stopped off in London, Kigali, Luanda and Johannesburg. Click to visit.
A new regular Lionesses of Africa feature is 'Things We're Loving This Month', where we showcase some of the fabulous and truly unique products being created by our talented women designers, makers and crafters across the continent. These are some of the things we are loving this month - hope you enjoy them too!
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US ambassador to Namibia, Thomas Daughton, flanked by Ally Angula (L) and Tammy Knott (R)
Ally Angula and Tammy Knott are two young women entrepreneurs making names for themselves as rising stars of the Namibian business scene. Their success has seen them invited to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) to be held July 24-26, 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of the United States Government. President Barack Obama will attend the GES summit reinforcing his commitment to women's entrepreneurship in a recent Whitehouse briefing where he stated, "... we’re going to step up our efforts to support young entrepreneurs and women, which is just smart business."
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Matilda Sekoakoa, co-founder of Help A Child Grow Foundation (South Africa)
The challenge of inspiring young, underprivileged and orphaned children in South Africa to learn to read and develop a love of books and learning, is one that social edupreneur Matilda Sekoakoa, together with her business partner, Lerato Kadiaka, have embraced. They are not just actively working to provide solutions, but their inspirational Help A Child Grow Foundation is positively and tangibly changing the lives of these children each day.
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- Juliana Rotich is a Technologist, MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow, TED Senior Fellow and currently serves as Chair of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Data Driven Development. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi Inc, a non-profit tech company, born in Africa, which specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. She leads a team that is expanding its global footprint and making crowdsourcing tools available and useful, and catalyzing entrepreneurial initiatives like iHub in Kenya. She also serves on the advisory council of Microsoft 4Afrika and Waabeh Ltd. In 2011 The World Economic Forum named Juliana 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year'.
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It might come as a surprise to some that an African country, Uganda, ranks first in the world for having the most entrepreneurs per capita, according to recent research conducted by UK-based business-networking group, Approved Index. Three further African countries, Cameroon, Angola and Botswana also occupy places amongst the top nine countries with the most entrepreneurs, many of them women.
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Perfect moment? I am not really sure if there is such. As an entrepreneur, there is no time like the present to make your dream a reality. It might take you a while to dive in at the deep end, but just know that you are delaying your destiny. A minute, a week, a month is way too long to have your dream deterred. Take a leap of faith and get on with realising your entrepreneurial dream.
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- Kari Warberg Block, founder and CEO of Earth-Kind, is an American inventor, serial entrepreneur and small business champion with a passion for growing people, products, ideas, and business through a sustainable approach. Her company, Earth-Kind, has the mission to preserve what’s good and prevent the rest, by providing proactive, natural alternatives to protect the spaces in which we live, work and play. Kari was named to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman Class of 2012.
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The annual Cartier Women's Initiative Awards aim to encourage women entrepreneurs starting up in business. This year, three sub-Sahara Africa finalists have been announced in the 2015 awards - Chinwe Ohajuruka, founder and CEO of Comprehensive Design Services (CDS) in Nigeria; Suzana Moreira, founder of MoWoza in Mozambique; and Thato Kgatlhanye & Rea Ngwane, co-founders of Rethaka Trading in South Africa.
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Guest Blog by Clare Kagimu, a Ugandan-born, but now UK resident, this talented Interior Architect and Designer shares her insights on the challenges facing women entrepreneurs both at home and abroad.
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Mame Khary Diene, founder and CEO of the Bioessence Laboratories receiving her award in the category of diaspora entrepreneurship at the 2015 UN IFAD Awards
Milan, Italy 18 June 2015: The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has awarded young Senegalese entrepreneur, Mame Khary Diene the founder and CEO of the Bioessence Laboratories, with their 2015 'Excellence in Diaspora Entrepreneurship with Social and Environmental Impact' Award. The award ceremony was held in Milan on June 18th.
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Bushera Bashir, founder of Trebene (South Africa)
Every woman entrepreneur in Africa has a unique story to tell and usually an inspirational story of how their own personal entrepreneurial journey started. The back-story for Bushera Bashir, the founder of ethical fashion label Trebene, takes us on a unique journey from the birthplace of Cashmere wool, Kashmir, from where Trebene’s beautiful luxury cashmere scarves are handwoven, through to Cape Town in South Africa where they are designed, printed and retailed.
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Akosua Afriyie-Kumi, founder of AAKS, Ghana
Global recognition for the luxurious handmade accessories created by Ghanaian fashion and accessory designer, Akosua Afriyie-Kumi, continues with her latest collection being showcased and retailed by the prestigious Anthropologie stores in the USA.
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Hot on the heels of the Bold Kampala team's recent fashion tour successes to London and Kigali, their unique global fashion pop-up store concept is now headed to Luanda in Angola, giving local fashionistas the opportunity to check out the fabulous African designs on show.
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Melanie Hawken, founder and editor-in-chief of Lionesses of Africa
Source: Hai Afrika | by Melanie Hawken | 12 June 2015
Female-run enterprises are growing exponentially all over the world, contributing to household incomes and the growth of national economies. However, these women often face challenges like social and physical constraints that might limit their ability to grow their businesses. --- As featured in Hai Afrika
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Dr. Jennifer Riria, Group CEO of Kenya Women Holding
My message to Africa’s young aspiring business people and entrepreneurs...
- Dr. Jennifer Riria is the Group CEO of Kenya Women Holding and one of Africa's leading women entrepreneurs who has always been on a mission to transform the lives of women and their families in her native Kenya. She is distinguished as a microfinance banker and practitioner, researcher and gender specialist. She has served in many leadership roles for which she has been recognized locally and internationally. In 2013 she was awarded the Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the year, East Africa 2013, and subsequently, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2014, at which point she was admitted to EY’s Global Hall of Fame.
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Ashley Heather, founder of Ashley Heather Jewellery
Have patience and trust your inutition....
- Ashley Heather is the founder and creative force behind Cape Town-based Ashley Heather Jewellery. All her jewellery is handcrafted at her Woodstock work+shop using precious metals reclaimed from circuit boards by a small refinery in South Africa. Ashley takes great care about every aspect of the craft and is constantly striving for the most sustainable studio practices from the manufacturing processes right through to the packaging.
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The dynamic trio behind DEF.I.NI.TION Africa are once again hitting the road this month as their Kenya tour continues, following a highly successful outing at the Soko Soke event in Rosslyn. The latest leg of their tour is now heading to The Bizarre Bazaar venue in Nairobi. The team have not only created some special new fashion designs to showcase to discerning buyers, but also newly created merchandise including a trendy range of stationery and other exciting new lifestyle items.
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As part of National Women’s Day celebrations, the Women’s Information Network is presenting 1,000 Global Women’s Summits as part of a massive global women’s initiative. The prestigious Global Women’s Summit in Johannesburg on 8 August aims to educate and engage women in meaningful discussions about women’s issues, business needs, entrepreneurial aspirations, and most importantly action oriented programmes. Learn how you can attend.
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Bianca & Khaya Sibiya, co-founders of Punk & Ivy (South Africa)
The fashion industry loves a brand that is unique, authentic and has a refreshingly different approach to the way it promotes itself to its customers. The dynamic husband and wife team, Bianca and Khaya Sibiya, deliver all of this and so much more with their uber-trendy Punk and Ivy clothing brand.
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Anna Raimondo, founder of SMITH Jewellery (South Africa)
In any jewellery design space, it is sometimes hard to make things that are instantly recognisable as the work of one creative person. Yet Anna Raimondo has created a brand personality and a design style that are uniquely hers, and as a result, the SMITH Jewellery brand is truly memorable.
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