Mariama Dia, a Senegalese entrepreneur transforming local fruits into natural retail products

February 12, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Mariama Dia, founder Delices Casamançaises (Senegal)

Startup Story

Mariama Dia is the founder of Delices Casamançaises in Senegal. She is married and the mother of two children, and holds a masters degree in geography. Being from Casamance, which is a forest region located in the south of Senegal, she witnesses every day the destruction of fruits resulting from overproduction. This is what led to her decision to launch her business, Delices Casamançaises with the aim of transforming the fruits to allow consumers to enjoy 12 months of the previously only seasonally available fruits.

Mona Al Adawy, a pioneer of energy data management in Egypt

February 12, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

GeoEnergy Petroleum Services, a business providing data management and digitalization for the exploration data assets of Egypt’s petroleum companies

Mona is the founding owner and ceo of GeoEnergy, a company specializing in providing data management services and digitalization solutions for the exploration data assets of the petroleum companies. Bootstrapping it from a $1,000 investment, it is now a firm that generates $1M+ in revenue, with over 65 clients, 25+ employees, and 40+ project-based consultants. Mona is IFC Nominee Director & Advisory Committee Member. In 2020, she acquired her MBA in Strategic Management - School of Business and Society, from South Wales University in the UK. She is a certified corporate director from IFC, World Bank, and was awarded a certificate in women’s entrepreneurship from Cornell University in the USA. She has a Certificate in Applied Management from Global Enterprise Center, Babson College in the USA, and graduated from the Geology/Chemistry Departments, Faculty of Science in Cairo University, 2002.

Cash injection planner for entrepreneurs: A Fast-Action Guide for Bringing Cash Into Your Business in the Next 7 Days by Michelle Kulp

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

Michelle Kulp, entrepreneur and author of the book Cash injection planner for entrepreneurs: A Fast-Action Guide for Bringing Cash Into Your Business in the Next 7 Days, believes that The #1 responsibility of entrepreneurs is to make money. Yet the #1 reason businesses fail is due to a lack of cash flow. She says many of those failures are preventable…

Negotiation, let’s even out the odds!

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (one of the greatest Russian Chess Grandmasters that has ever lived) was asked by The Economist magazine how to beat Putin (here) and he started by pointing out that where people get it wrong about Putin was that he was not playing Chess with the world, but Poker. Chess, he said was transparent, every single thing you need to know about the game is always in front of you. Nothing else. “Chess is a 100% transparent game. Information that is available for me at the board, is also available for my opponent and visa versa…A game that is far more consistent with Putin’s capabilities…is Poker.”

How to gain external validation to grow your confidence in your business

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Felicity Cowie, author of Exposure

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

Creating safe and reliable healthcare, by women, for women

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Moyosola Kara

Meet Doctors Zara Isa Modibbo and Nabila Ado Wanka, creating safe and reliable healthcare, by women, for women. The pairing of Drs Isa Modibbo and Ado Wanka would please many within the field of life sciences due to their individual accomplishments within the sector. They have combined experience of over two decades in their respective fields, the former a celebrated clinical microbiologist, infectious disease epidemiologist and clinical researcher, and the latter, an accomplished Cytopathologist, Anatomic and Cancer Specialist. The award-winning pair who have maintained a friendship for over three decades have teamed up to partner on the launch of a service near and dear to them - the improvement of laboratory processes in connection to women’s health in Africa, beginning with their home country, Nigeria.

How to Turn Your Fear Into Fuel

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Would you ever choose to watch a bad movie twice? Probably not. Yet when it comes to something we dread or even something painful that happened in the past, we replay it repeatedly. Every time you play the movie in your mind, the picture gets brighter, and the sounds more intense. Some of us have been playing the movie for years, preventing us from making progress on what matters most. So what can you do about it?

The Ethics of the Hopeless Case

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw

In a recent labour court judgement, the legal nature of resignation was considered. It was also considered whether, and if so - how it could be revoked. We are currently in a great resignation globally, for reasons including but not limited to employees seeking to access provident fund benefits. Employees want to start their businesses. Short working time was never adjusted, leading to searching for greener pastures, regardless of the chances that you could face several resignations this year. You must avoid ending up in court over it.

Alix Willemez, an entrepreneur in Cote d'Ivoire providing consumers with useful local online information

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Alix Willemez, founder, Mamafrica (Cote d’Ivoire)

Startup Story

Alix Willemez is the founder of Mamafrica in Cote d’Ivoire, a business that aims to make life easier in Côte d'Ivoire and to reduce dependence on word-of-mouth by offering consumers innovative and practical online services while supporting the development of local businesses. Today, the whole Mamafrica team works every day, through its different specialized websites, to bring quality information on health, leisure, to promote the employment of quality domestic staff, to highlight reliable real estate agencies and local craftsmen, and to support local NGOs.

Arlene Singh, a South African environmental consultant in the renewable energy sector

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Startup Story

Arlene Singh is the founder of Nala Environmental (Pty) Ltd based in Johannesburg, South Africa. After years in the corporate sector, she took the big leap into starting her own Environmental Consulting firm. Arlene’s business is focused on providing environmental consulting services to Developers in the renewable energy sector in Africa. The business was founded in 2019 after 10 years in the sector. She is registered as a Professional Natural Scientist in the field of Environmental Science with the South African Council of Scientific Professionals and a Registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner with the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa.

Diana Mbogo, an award-winning Tanzanian renewable energy entrepreneur

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Millennium Engineers Enterprises Limited, a Tanzanian renewable energy company specializing in solar and wind energy technologies

Diana Mbogo, 30, is a mother of two beautiful children and the founder/ managing director of Millennium Engineers Enterprises Ltd, a fast-growing renewable energy company in Tanzania that specializes in discovering untapped markets in different industries and sectors. The company then develops customized innovative business solutions by understanding the challenges, exploring solutions alongside customers/beneficiaries, and taking action in the best way to craft sustainable energy solutions. Founded in 2016 while still in her final academic year pursuing a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering, she managed to grow the company from ideation stage to a fast-growing and award-winning renewable energy company in Africa.

LIONESSES OF AFRICA PRIVACY STATEMENT — DATA PROTECTION NOTICE

February 1, 2023 Melanie Hawken

LIONESSES OF AFRICA PRIVACY STATEMENT — DATA PROTECTION NOTICE

FOR THE PURPOSE OF

PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA RELATED TO LIONESSES OF AFRICA SURVEYS, QUESTIONNAIRES, POLLS, AND ADVOCACY CONSULTATIONS

Lioness Launch / Mozambican luxury accessory design house, Atelier Taíla Carrilho, launches its eye-catching new R.I.S.E. collection

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Launch

For style conscious people who want their accessories to stand out from the crowd, the newly launched R.I.S.E. collection from Mozambican luxury accessory design house, Atelier Taíla Carrilho is a must-have this year. Founder and designer, Taíla Carrilho, creates handmade, truly eye-catching fashion accessories for women and men, utilizing local materials and labour. The new R.I.S.E. collection is inspired by the act of being reborn after a fall.

The Vacation Effect for Entrepreneurs: Grow Your Business Even Faster by Working Less and Having More Fun by Denise M Gosnell

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

All too often, business owners end up stuck, feeling like the only way to grow is to work harder and harder, but in her book The Vacation Effect for Entrepreneurs, business strategist and lifestyle designer Denise Gosnell has a solution. She shows busy entrepreneurs how to create the free time they crave while growing the business they love.

Dirce Vicente, a Mozambican agripreneur uses the power of publishing to inspire others in agriculture

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Dirce Vicente, founder, Fly Eagles LDA (Mozambique)

Startup Story

Fly Eagles LDA is a digital magazine publishing venture, founded by experienced agripreneur, Dirce Vicente in Mozambique. Passionate about Agriculture, she has already developed many solutions to improve the agricultural ecosystem in Mozambique. Dirce is the founder of Dfruit, Agri impact, and is currently letting her passion emerge with the launch of an agribusiness magazine called Fly Eagles Agribusiness. The magazine aims to provide the reader with unique experiences, inspiring them to reach their purpose and unlock their maximum potential. It shares stories of overcoming and persistence in Agriculture from people who are making it happen, and excelling in this field.

Tamryn Lowe, a South African entrepreneur passionate about photography

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Tamryn Lowe, owner, Tamryn Lowe Photography (South Africa)

Startup Story

Tamryn Lowe is the owner of Tamryn Lowe Photography based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an international award winning photographer with a passion for helping change the way women see themselves, as well as helping businesses receive more qualified leads through being intentional with their personal branding photos. While she founded her business eleven years ago, she spent the first four years also working for other photographers and the second four years in corporate - all while running her own business at the same time.

Grab this opportunity!

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

It was John Elkington who in 1994 originally coined the phrase ‘Triple Bottom Line’ to change the thinking within business from the view that ‘business is in the business to do business’, to, in his words “…provoke deeper thinking about capitalism and its future” (here). The trouble was (as John himself admitted here) that this quickly became an accounting add-on, and with that, for many (not all, as he highlights ‘heroes’ Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, Anglo-Dutch Unilever, and Germany’s Covestro), the tick boxes appeared and behind the smoke and mirrors, double counting, and dare we say it, being ‘economical with the truth’, the talk just increased, leaving the entire purpose - positive impact at scale through the transformation of capitalism, in the dust.

Jumoke Dada, a Nigerian e-commerce furniture and lifestyle brand builder

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

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.

Avoid a resignation ending you up in court

January 26, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw

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