the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Gladys Chibanda, founder, Krafted Ink (Zimbabwe)
Startup Story
Gladys Chibanda, founder of Krafted Ink in Zimbabwe, is a visionary entrepreneur dedicated to merging sustainability and culture. With a mission to combat textile waste and promote cultural diversity, Krafted Ink transforms discarded textiles into eco-friendly gift packaging and stationery, celebrating the rich heritage of African fabrics. Gladys's leadership propels the company towards a greener, culturally enriched future, one product at a time.
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Arashnee Ramjuguth, founder, Refresha Trading Enteprises (South Africa)
Startup Story
Arashnee Ramjuguth is the Founder of Refresha Trading Enteprises based in Durban, South Africa. The business is focused on providing clean purified drinking water to the community of South Africa. Refresha Trading Enterprises is a LEVEL 1 BBBEE owned custom bottled water company offering a range of products and services. Arashnee’s mission is to ensure clean, purified drinking water is affordable and accessible to the South African people. Her business aspires to be the go-to place to create an impactful branded bottled water experience by helping its clients to grow their personal brand or businesses through branding water products.
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by Ronnie Mbatsane, Managing Executive for SME Business & Sanah Gumede, Managing Executive for Strategy and Customer Value Management at Absa Relationship Banking
The past few years have been difficult ones for South Africans. We have faced the COVID pandemic, intensified load shedding, civil unrest and natural disasters to name a few. Not only have these challenges interrupted our daily lives, but the environment has changed significantly as a result with profound social and financial implications for individuals as well as businesses. According to the Africa Report, a significant portion of South Africa’s young people are now unemployed, with women making up two-thirds of the job losses during the pandemic.
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Heather Kernahan
Book Review
If you feel stuck and like you have hit a wall in your business, then you need to read Unstuckable, the must-read new book by global tech executive, strategic adviser, and sought-after speaker Heather Kernahan. She pours her two decades of leading start-ups, scale-ups, and tech empires into her game-changing UNSTUCK model and shares her insights and wisdom for others to use.
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Antsa Ramaroson
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Curly Aho, a business dedicated to the care and enhancement of afro and textured hair in Madagascar.
Antsa Ramaroson is the co-founder of Curly Aho, a company and a social movement dedicated to the care and enhancement of afro and textured hair in Madagascar. She started with the online community in December 2017, but the business officially started in 2020 with the opening of the natural hair spa, and today it has 30 employees. Curly Aho means “I have curly hair” in Malagasy (native language) and consists of the Curly Aho Community, an online community of 50 000 members, and a support group to encourage inclusive beauty and curl confidence. Texture, a natural hair spa, is dedicated to give access to personalized treatments and curl education and Loharano is a plant-based haircare brand rich in plants of Madagascar, famous for their benefits in hair. Antsa has been featured as one of the Top 50 African Business Heroes 2021. She is a hairdresser and a certified curl expert.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
The last few weekends we have returned to a common undercurrent in many of our articles written almost weekly since early 2020, namely the tremors hitting the world and rushing towards our beautiful businesses (our most recent here and here). From Covid warnings in early articles, or the Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal (here) it’s been almost a continuous fear of the next thing to hit us, up to the present day, where supply chains are still stretched; inflation and interest rates are high (and very ‘sticky'); US$ debt of many African countries still too large and with higher interest rates now impacting our daily lives, all US$ being sucked out of the economies to pay the growing interest bills; global warming is of course omni-present and looms over us…it seems to go on and on. With all of this we could certainly be forgiven for looking at these storms and simply shutting up shop and finding a shady spot under a Baobab tree from which to rest out our days.
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by Cheryl Benadie
It's a brand new day. You've snoozed the alarm at least three times (if you're that kind of morning person) and dragged yourself into the shower. Before you can barely grasp the soap, a deluge of your undone action lists stream into your consciousness. A slow mumble begins to build in your mind about how you wish you were headed to a beach instead of having to brace yourself for the traffic and yet another miserable day of chasing a never-ending task list.
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by Lori Milner
How would you rate your last conversation out of ten – ten being where the other person felt seen and truly heard and one being where you were so focused on your own inner chatter that you don't even remember what was said? Now, if you scored less than an 8, it's time for a new set of skills. I'm not going to tell you to nod and show you are paying attention because a great listener doesn't need to prove they can listen. A great listener must show the other person they have been heard. A great listener helps other people share more.
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by Tsitsi Mutendi
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents a transformative initiative aimed at creating a single market for goods and services across the African continent. With the potential to significantly boost trade and economic growth, the AfCFTA offers numerous opportunities for businesses, and this includes African women entrepreneurs. In this article, we will explore the implications of the AfCFTA for women in business, how they can engage in this historic trade agreement, and the strategies they can adopt to maximise its benefits.
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by Anja van Beek, Talent Strategist, Leadership & HR Expert and Executive Coach
The one constant thing we can be certain of is change. The world we were used to was flipped upside down. Here’s what you need to know about the human side of change to support your team. We all can relate to the term RUPT (rapid, unpredictable, paradoxical, tangled) coined by the Centre for Creative Leadership. Almost everything that has been ‘normal’ for us, changed. The uncertainty has reached new heights – as we are not sure what the future will look like – we only know it will be quite different from what we were used to.
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Omoyemi Akerele
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Style House Files/Lagos Fashion Week, two powerful business platforms advancing Nigerian and African Fashion industries
Omoyemi Akerele is an experienced, renowned creative economy change agent and social entrepreneur with over 20 years of notable achievements in the areas of youth development, job creation, circular fashion development, showcasing and discovering talent and creating access to the market globally for Africa's evolving textile and apparel industry. Omoyemi drives change across the ecosystem through her current position as Founder and CEO at Style House Files, Lagos Fashion Week where she applies core economic development principles to connect the missing gaps that exist within the African textile and apparel ecosystem such as capacity-building, skills development, access to capital, infrastructural development, artisanal skills preservation and closing the loop.
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Esther Kestenbaum Prozan
Book Review
Spending rampantly to scale has proven unsustainable and undesirable, according to author and multi-industry C-suite executive, Esther Kestenbaum Prozan, in her new book, Bigger & Better: A Playbook for Quickly Scaling Your Small Company with Limited Resources. She believes you don’t have to spend a lot to scale fast, your business can grow quickly without throwing money at a growth plan to make it work. Instead, she says be audacious, smart, strategic, and tactical.
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Absa / Lioness Launch
As an entrepreneur, you are always in search of ways to leave your mark in an impactful way. With Business She Thrives, Absa is here to support and empower you with the tools that enable you and your business to grow. Absa has a range of holistic, well-designed banking, finance and investment solutions, offered to enable you to achieve your business goals, wealth creation, protection and preservation objectives to build your business legacy. Over and above this, you have non-financial solutions as a value-add to give you access to markets, training and networking events.
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Didintle Moreki, founder, Organic Naturals Skincare (Botswana)
Lioness Launch
Organic Naturals Skincare, a leading manufacturer of premium skincare products in Botswana, founded by entrepreneur Didintle Moreki, is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Faithful to Nature, the South African pioneer in offering conscious consumers a wide range of ethically sourced and sustainable products. This exciting partnership showcases a shared commitment to quality, ethics, and sustainability in the world of skincare.
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Forget Shareka, founder, Chashi Foods (Zimbabwe)
Startup Story
Forget Shareka is the founder of Chashi Foods in Zimbabwe, and also a farmer, vibrant agronomic engineer, award-winning entrepreneur, environmental management, and sustainability professional. She is passionate about agribusiness, sustainable food systems, sustainability, community development, youth and women empowerment, and climate action. Her academic background is in agricultural sciences, entrepreneurship, and innovation. She is the founder and business development director for Chashi Foods, an agro-processing company committed to reducing postharvest and food losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, she works in the Environmental, Social, and Governance field (ESG) in Telecommunications.
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Masanda Peter, founder, Mineworker Magazine
Startup Story
Masanda Peter is a qualified, seasoned Marketing, Media and Communications Professional and a serial entrepreneur in South Africa who has launched a magazine publishing venture, Mineworker Magazine, focusing on sharing the untold stories of mineworkers. For a long time, mineworkers have not had their side of the story covered and through this magazine their stories will be shared. Masanda has a journalism background having embarked on her Journalism studies and completed her International Diploma in Journalism.
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by Blessed Agyemang
In the dynamic and ever-evolving world of supply chain management, the power of a purposeful, impactful, and strong personal or business brand cannot be underestimated. Just as an efficient and agile supply chain is essential for business success, a well-crafted brand identity is the cornerstone of recognition, credibility, and influence. Whether you're an individual professional or a business entity within the supply chain industry, it has become of utmost importance and benefit to master the art of building a powerful brand that stands out and commands attention. I will touch on a few points.
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by Lori Milner
Most people's first thought on waking in the morning is the fear of not having enough time and how they will get it all done and find the balance. Naturally, finance is another area where scarcity thinking comes into play. Through coaching hundreds of people, I've discovered the fear of running out of energy. Although this fear is common, how it's translated into reality differs from person to person because what may drain one person energises another.
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by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw
In recent years, South Africa has witnessed a surge in the influencer marketing industry. With the rise of social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, individuals from various walks of life have harnessed their online presence to become influential figures. These influencers can help brands reach a wider audience and boost their marketing efforts. However, as this industry continues to evolve, both influencers and brands must be aware of the legal implications and responsibilities that come with it.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Marc Andreessen of the massively successful Tech investment fund ‘a16z’ likes to joke that the best thing about startups is that they “only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” (See here).
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