Vera Osei-Bonsu, a Ghanaian children’s nutrition focused entrepreneur

November 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Eat smart Foods and Start Right Nutrition Ltd, a food business putting baby and children’s nutrition first

Vera Osei-Bonsu is the founder and CEO of Eat Smart Foods and Start Right Nutrition in Ghana. Back in 2012, she was looking for a vibrant local business that made nutritious local food products for babies that are naturally fortified. Seeing the lack of healthier local baby food options in the area, she saw an opportunity. Start Right Nutrition was created in 2012 to advocate for healthy balanced foods for children from the ages of 6 months to 5 years and Eat Smart Foods was created in 2021 with the goal of bringing and manufacturing naturally fortified local baby food options. Currently, the business has over five products selling across the retailing sectors in Ghana, and has created jobs for 10 employees.Vera was awarded as the Emerging Star in Agribusiness in Africa in 2022, and the International Business Award in Africa in 2022 by Women in Agribusiness and Guzakuza.

Quote of the Day by Marieme Esther Dassanou

November 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

“African Development Bank Group is committed to accelerating women entrepreneurs’ ability to access finance by unlocking up to $5 billion by 2026.”

Esther Dassanou, Manager, Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), African Development Bank Group

On Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Lionesses of Africa’s Business Confidence Report celebrates African women entrepreneurs’ optimism about business

November 18, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Press Release

On Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Lionesses of Africa’s Business Confidence Report celebrates African women entrepreneurs’ optimism about business

Women entrepreneurs in Africa are expressing widespread optimism and continuing resilience despite the prevailing economic climate, according to the 2022 Lionesses Business Confidence Report and Index launched on Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, 19 November 2022.

The Entrepreneur Advantage: Emotional Intelligence for Building and Growing Your Business by Elizabeth Miner

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

Entrepreneurship is a Marathon, according to international business coach, global speaker, digital nomad, and author Elizabeth Miner. Her book, The Entrepreneur Advantage: Emotional Intelligence for Building and Growing Your Business, is a great tool to have in your personal business building race. Elizabeth shares her knowledge and encourages entrepreneurs to think more deeply and personally about how they operate and show up in their business to create complete and sustainable success.

Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka wins 2022 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

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!

Purity Gakuo, a Kenyan entrepreneur making refrigeration affordable to small-scale fishers in Africa

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Purity Gakuo, founder, Kuza Freezer (Kenya)

Startup Story

Purity Gakuo is a climate change advocate and founder of Kuza Freezer in Kenya. Her business bridges the cold chain gap in the fish value and supply chain by making refrigeration affordable to the small-scale fishers of Africa. She has a zeal for improving the livelihood of people in her community and Africa at large, especially women and youth, through affordable refrigeration. She has a professional background in business management with 4 years of experience, and has won several awards including the AFCFTA Caravan Prize, in recognition of her role as a community champion.

Mamela Luthuli, a pioneering South African security-focused techpreneur

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

TakeNote IT, a South African cyber security business providing innovative IT solutions to clients

Mamela Luthuli is a well-known business leader, founder, entrepreneur, and CEO of Take Note IT in South Africa, which provides cyber security and innovative IT solutions to its clients. The business was established in 2007. Her purpose is “I am dedicated to protecting and keeping businesses and our people safe in South Africa and the rest of the world. I believe that technology and 4IR are only at the tip of a disruptive revolution that will create a new way of life for us all.” As a CEO, she guides her team of 65 young leaders to build a future for themselves the business, and the future of the country. Her contribution to the Cybersecurity and IoT industry has been realized through engineered products & services that secure digital and physical assets by proactively mitigating the risk of hacking, vandalism, and theft, through engineered cyber security and IoT solutions - helping to protect your business, protect your people, protect your reputation.

Victoria Haihambo, a Namibian entrepreneur connecting micro women vendors to markets

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

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.

Quiet quitting, or just a failure of management?

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“Historically, no known human society has created shared prosperity purely through redistribution. Prosperity comes from creating jobs that pay decent wages. And it is good jobs, not redistribution, that provide people with purpose and meaning in life.” So wrote Daron Acemoglu (here), Professor of Economics at MIT, and co-author of ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty’ (here). Purpose and meaning in life, now there is a deep subject that cannot be answered in a single article, but certainly if we limit it to how we can look to create this environment for our employees and our businesses, then perhaps that would be a start.

Helping mothers raising future entrepreneurs

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Isa Cumba

There are no perfect parents! Even those who managed to turn their children into functional and successful adults, certainly left a few scars their children need to heal from, because well...these parents are humans, thus they’re flawed. And that’s ok. Parenting really is the toughest job there is and that’s not really up for debate (Sorry!) So, I decided to share with my fellow mothers a few questions that I’ve been asking myself, as a mother and a daughter, hoping they will hopefully help us raise our future Elons.

Reflections when staring down the barrel of a (civil) lawsuit

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw

Often when clients find themselves in a dispute, we are asked as attorneys to comment on the prospects of success, which is sometimes a challenging question to answer effectively. In South Africa, we follow an approach that all matters are based on a balance of probabilities (concerning civil cases). In simple terms, this means that the version the judge or magistrate is most persuaded to be most probable will succeed. But, of course, the legal requirements also play a role and should not be overlooked.

How to gain positive business exposure with zero to low financial investment

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Felicity Cowie, author of Exposure

In my earlier blog for LoA, What Exactly is Media Relations, I said there are at least eight mega benefits of media relations for any business to consider:

The Continued Business Case for Stillness

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

What does stillness mean to you? For most high achievers, it ironically creates a sense of anxiety because there is a belief that stillness equals stagnation. What if you replaced the word stillness with self-reflection, a strategic pause or personal mastery? What if I could convince you that stillness is the key to your success rather than something that prevents you from your goals? It's what master life coach Rich Litvin says, 'slow down to speed up’.

Nadine Farrag, an Egyptian entrepreneur transforming the country’s wedding industry

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Nadine Farrag, CEO & Founder, Farahy (Egypt)

Startup Story

Nadine Farrag is the CEO & Founder of Farahy, the first and largest one-stop-hub for everything wedding related in Egypt. Since 2020, Nadine and the team have been utilizing technology to transform the Egyptian wedding industry from a very fragmented market to a one-stop service and product marketplace. During the process, they haven't only been helping out couples achieve their stress-free dream day, they've also been empowering women all over the industry by bridging the gap between them and their clients. Internally, they're very proud to have a 100% female team.

Barbara Kamba-Nyathi, a Zimbabwean entrepreneur creating an intuitive wellness platform

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Barbara Kamba-Nyathi, founder, Bold Dialogue Investments PVT Ltd (Zimbabwe)

Startup Story

For those looking for a safe space for healing and personal transformation, entrepreneur Barbara Kamba-Nyathi has created Bold Dialogue Investments PVT Ltd. Launched in 2019 in Zimbabwe, this lifestyle and wellness business helps people to live a more purposeful, authentic and fulfilled life.

Stacey Menga Onyango, a Kenyan entrepreneur building a visionary construction business

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Minkoti Agencies Limited, a specialist, high-growth, Kenyan construction company specializing in building and civil works

Stacey Menga Onyango is the Director / Founder of Minkoti Agencies Limited in Kenya. Stacey is the sole director of the company that was founded in 2009 as a small enterprise business dealing in general supplies, and has since grown into a middle enterprise business with over 60 employees. Stacey has a background in Human Resources and Strategic Management but decided to defy the odds and get into the construction sector in 2018. The company offers quality building and civil construction services both to the government and private sector, and has in the past year upscaled the operations of the company to South Sudan.

How to be an A+ Partner, Mom and Entrepreneur: For women who are trying to do it all by Sylvie Tamanda

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

All women worldwide who struggle to balance parenthood, love, and a fulfilling profession should read How to be an A+ Partner, Mom and Entrepreneur by author Silvie Tamanda. Sylvie has experienced what most women do as a partner and mother of two young children, but she eventually found a way to make it all work. Women who are now having difficulties will discover all the answers to their queries, and those who have not yet stepped foot in these three worlds will have plenty of information to get them ready for what lies ahead.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

How can one truly compare the funding of male founded companies with those female led? To simply state that there is an iniquitous relationship between funding for male dominated companies and those female - which at first (second and third) glance does appear to be the case, opens one up to the answer that perhaps one is comparing apples with pears. That it just so happens that of the particular set of companies funded, the male dominated companies are ‘better’, more ‘fundable’ than female ones, more ‘noticeable’, or ‘better educated’ (obviously, ‘better’ in all these contexts is very, very subjective - just ask Richard Branson who left school at 16), but there is no doubt (here from ‘Africa: the Big Deal’), that at least a top western university on the cv makes a huge difference to funding success.

Is there such as thing as divorcing a client?

November 5, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Teboho Seretlo

I am an independent business consultant, meaning I earn my revenue from paying clients, who are prepared to pay for my time and expertise. I get most of my clients from word-of-mouth, followed by social media. In the last few years since I started this consultancy, I have realized that it is very important to know your worth and be confident in what you can deliver. If you don’t know your worth, you will be chopping and changing things such as your fees, the minute a client complains about your fees. You don’t want to get into such a debate with a client, especially if the client is not even one of those that contribute a lot towards your monthly revenue. Once you get into such a debate, then rest assured the client will always come back to you with this line of cornering you into lowering your fees.

How to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking

November 5, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

As much as you dread public speaking and presentations, this is one of your most incredible opportunities to demonstrate value and catapult yourself in your career. If it's not your strong suit, you'll shift away from speaking opportunities and convince yourself you're an introvert or prefer to be behind the scenes. How can you shift your perspective and develop these skills, whether conversing with a few people, presenting to your team or addressing an auditorium? Here are seven things to consider: