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Chapter 1: Why are female-led startups struggling in Sub-Saharan Africa?
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Hello and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service.
I'm Will Bain. Today, how to supercharge startups in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. I started this idea with $30.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do female entrepreneurs face in accessing investment?
The region has the highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world, but many of those businesses run into the same issue.
I wouldn't say it's easy to raise money. It's not. Because, again, you have to prove the case. There are down days where you feel like you want to give up, but you remember why you're doing this. 70% of my workforce are women and people always encourage me, Madame, we have to keep going.
And that problem is exacerbated for the estimated 20 to 25% of those businesses that are set up by women. So today on Business Daily, we're asking how to get more cash to Africa's female entrepreneurs.
The big trigger happened when President Obama and his wife came in Dakar, Senegal.
Entrepreneurship can sound daunting as it hides behind a slightly fancy term.
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Chapter 3: How can we increase cash flow for Africa's female entrepreneurs?
But really, it's having a great idea and turning that lightbulb moment into a business. And as our panel today, including the Senegalese fashion designer Safa Tousek, you heard from there, will explain, that idea can come from anywhere. including, as it turns out, a passing compliment from a former US First Lady. The stats back it up.
According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world, with around 42% of the non-agricultural labour force classified as self-employed or employers.
Yet the development organisation warns most entrepreneurs are unable to grow their businesses beyond small-scale subsistence operations, often because of an inability to access to private or state investment that would help them grow. This, the World Bank continues, is particularly so for women.
and that is having a detrimental impact on whole economies and efforts to lift communities out of poverty. In fact, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where women make up the majority of those who are entrepreneurs. However, according to the bank...
Chapter 4: What inspired the entrepreneurs to start their businesses?
A range of impediments render women's businesses less productive, with fewer employees than those owned by men. So today, we're going to try and work through what those are and try and work out what might shift that picture. And to do that, we've gathered a panel of entrepreneurs from across sub-Saharan Africa.
Mary Niambura is the founder and chief executive of Echo Charge, based in Kasaju, Kenya.
We manufacture biomass briquettes from agricultural waste such as sodas, macadamia shells, rice husks, all this aggregated together to form the beautiful biomass briquette, which is used by the B2B market.
Angela Nawateme joined us from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
I'm the CEO and founding director of Fona Health Foods Limited, the proud producers of anti-porridge. Our mission is to ensure that all children under five thrive by producing nutrient-dense products that can help combat malnutrition in Africa.
And Safa Tusek, based in Dakar, Senegal, is the founder of the fashion brand Soraya.
It's a fashion brand, which is three things.
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Chapter 5: How do the entrepreneurs overcome challenges in their journeys?
Tradimodern, which is a mix of traditions and modernity with the cut and the styles. High-end. And then Foreman. So the brand has been created in 2014.
Before we dived into that issue of accessing vital investment to try and grow, we asked just how did you come up with a business idea in the first place? Starting with the Ugandan entrepreneur, Angela Nawatemi.
One thing I'd like to make very clear is that nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. I started this idea with $30, and of that, just $15 came from my pocket. I started it with a friend.
After experiencing malnutrition face-to-face during a charity event that I organized with my friends in one of the districts, that's when I realized we had to do more than just giving out cakes during charity visits to hospitals.
Chapter 6: What strategies do female entrepreneurs use to attract investors?
Mary, where did it come from for you, the kind of germ of an idea? Was it a kind of light bulb, a click of the fingers moment for you too? Or was there exactly as Angela was just saying, was there you were doing something already and you suddenly thought, I can build on this?
I think mine was derived from curiosity with zero shillings. Because when we went to our grandma's place, we used to dump all this charcoal dust in one side. And then I read on the internet, cow dung can be a binder. And I just mixed the two with my both hands and were able to look at the dairy. And voila, EcoChurch was formed.
Yeah. Just tell us a little bit about how it works.
Chapter 7: What role does passion play in the entrepreneurs' success?
So the first batch I made was now chako balls, which is now from cow dung and chard dust. This we used to cook in the village. So the first meal I cooked was idiri, which is just a mixture of beans and maize in Kenya. And then progressed now to chard dust and molasses so that people can buy. Because when people hear cow dung, they're like, eh. We cannot buy cow dung from here.
So I went to making with molasses. Now I was able to sell to chicken farmers. So it was class one, class two, now class three where we are at. We are making from agricultural waste and now serving the B2B market, industries, schools and hotels.
Chapter 8: What is the future outlook for female entrepreneurs in Africa?
And Safa too, what about for you? What about that moment where you knew you wanted to do something for yourself? Because that's quite a big thing, isn't it? Not working for someone else, working for yourself.
I think that I have had multiple trigger moments, but that did not push me into doing it because I am in a context where in Africa, like fashion is not taken really, really, really seriously. Until when I was working at the American Embassy as an economist, the big trigger happened when President Obama and his wife came in Dakar, Senegal.
So I was wearing a dress that I actually designed and I was part of the logistics for receiving President Obama and his wife. And I was in Goree Island, which is about 14 minutes away. The president couple was visiting the island and Mrs. Obama, one of her personal assistants, came to me. And at that moment, I was not doing, you know, Saraya yet. I was at the embassy working as a
as a full-time economist. And she came to me and she was like, where is your dress coming from? And I said, well, I designed it myself. And she said, you know, Mrs. Obama would have loved to have your dress. And at that moment, I knew that it was time to stop everything and to do this 100%. So that was in 2013 when they came. And in 2014, I was fully doing my business.
Wow.
So, Mary, all of you saw, to some extent, saw something that no one else was doing. That's the kind of reason for these businesses, right? It's one thing seeing it. It's another one having the bravery, the confidence to go for it. Did you have any kind of sort of nervous moments about setting out on your own?
I think I will say there's something in you that tells you you can't do an 8 to 5 job. You just can't have people reminding you because I had internships and I will see how those people are not so happy working. I do not think I wanted her in that place. I was ready to face whatever it came with.
Right. And so how did that kind of sort of manifest itself then? Did you sort of sit down and have conversations with people or did you just you really kind of just, as you say, knew it in your heart and just went for it and set out?
I consulted God and then I did my Zara research until I got my first investor and we were able to kick off.
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