Africa is changing from a region known for its terrible patriarchy, to a better environment for young African women to thrive and build businesses. The paradigm shift affecting the world, displacing systems usually dominated by the male gender is a positive wave being embraced in the African co-operate and creative systems. There’s more potential when both sexes are given equal room to present and structure their environment with various perspectives. The change is adding new layers to the way we view and construct the future going forward, forming a more inclusive world.
Forbes recently put out a list of young African individuals pushing frontiers through different mediums, on this list a few women were highlighted with most coming from the business side of the list and the tech side having just 4 women out of 30.
We’ve decided to point out a few women we find interesting, enjoy.
Nomvula Mhambi, 29, Zimbabwe: Founder of Disruptive Innovation.
At age 22, her company was contracted by DStv Zimbabwe to host their Big Brother events. She founded her Disruptive Innovation after noticing the gap in the industry, building full-service media communications and advertising social enterprise.
Forbes writes, ‘When her mother couldn’t afford to take her to university because of the economic and political downturn in Zimbabwe, Mhambi turned to entrepreneurship. She registered a catering and events management company at age 19. She was later invited to work on a concert that featured Akon and Sean Paul. It opened doors… Mhambi also runs a hair and nail lounge and is also into agriculture, growing button and oyster mushrooms, which she supplies to a majority of Zimbabwe’s supermarkets and restaurants producing over 1,000 punnets per week. She employs 25 full-time and 12 part-time staff.‘
Anita Adetola Adetoye, 26, Nigeria: Founder Of Anita Brows Beauty.
Adetola Anita Adetoye, creative director of Anita Brows Beauty, with over seven years of experience, she has single-handedly built an award-winning brand.
She informed Guardian ‘I’ve always been experimenting with makeup from my final years in secondary school. I remember my mum buying me a makeup set that had everything from lipstick to eye shadow to blush, powder and highlight. I would practice on my sister, my aunties and friends with no intention of doing it professionally. I brushed off my skills on Youtube and posted pictures on my social network pages with no intention of getting into the business. After a while people would call to ask how much I charge to do their makeup professionally. I would say my passion and not the money motivated me.’
Bidemi Zakariyau, 28, Nigeria: Founder of LSF|PR.
Bidemi Zakariyaau founded LSF|PR which started as a fashion PR agency since it’s inception, she’s transformed it into a full-service public relations consultancy with a core focus on corporate communications and consumer brands.
‘As a business owner, I am inspired by stories and solutions. When the latter is well-intended, and the former properly communicated, a good job has been done and lives may be changed in the process. I am inspired by working with people who are deliberately working towards enriching all our lives through their products or services. As a woman, I am inspired by the possibilities of chance and opportunity. Countless women before me paved the way so a twenty-something can run her own company, without limitation. I am inspired by the opportunity to pass the baton, hold the door open for other women, in the workplace.‘, she shares with Guardian Nigeria.
Anelisa Mntuyedwa, 28, South Africa: Founder of Gilbert Civils.
Anelisa Mntuyedwa, grew up in the Eastern Cape Province, Mntuyedwa had quite an interesting upbringing. From about age 10, she says she had a dream very different from her peers. She wanted to be an entrepreneur with a business listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange when all her friends wanted to be lawyers and doctors, inspired by her dad she started Gilbert Civils, a construction company in the Eastern Cape with clients like Buffalo City and DNA Structures.
Nataliey Bitature, 28, Uganda: Co-founder of Musana Carts.
Bitature, Keisuke Kubota, and Manon Lavaud co-founded Musana Carts (“Musana” means sunlight) in San Francisco, the company offers solar-powered vending carts that can support a fridge and stove. The main market is Ugandan street food traders, who are about 80% women according to Bitature. Bitature was named a World Economic Forum Top Woman Innovator in 2016 and was invited to present at the World Bank headquarters for the Spring Meetings 2017. She also previously founded two service businesses in Kampala: Tateru Properties and Handymen Uganda.
‘Entrepreneurship provided for my family and for the first time I saw that it was something I took for granted. The teenage girls in the class I taught had very simple and unambitious dreams and it broke my heart. I knew I had to get into a business that changed lives, improved communities and gave other Ugandan girls the opportunities I had had,‘ she shared with Forbes.
Kene Rapu, 28, Nigeria: Founder of Slippers by Kene.
Kene Rapu started ‘Slippers by Kene’, in 2011, as an initiative to promote the development of the local (Nigerian) industry, by using locally sourced materials and workmanship, to provide bespoke handcrafted slippers and sandals. They claim to be the No.1 Nigerian footwear brand, championing local production.
‘I have always loved fashion, my first-ever internship at the age of 13 was in a hat showroom. From then on, I always managed to squeeze in an internship whenever I could. From working with magazines to working backstage at fashion shows to professional modeling; fashion has always been my passion! Why slippers? Being tall, I’m always on the lookout for nice, affordable, good-quality flats. SlippersbyKene started from me designing a pair of slippers for myself. I wanted something interesting that wasn’t in the stores, and that was incorporated into the popular African fabric – Ankara. I had them made, wore them out and everyone loved them. Family and friends placed orders, the word spread, and two years later we are where we are now.’
Nneile Nkholise, 29, South Africa: Founder of Imed Tech.
Nneile Nkholise founded IMed Tech as a means of hiring young female mechanical engineers to design breast and facial prostheses for cancer and burn victims. She intends to make available quality artificial replacements that would make life easier for those who are in need of medical prostheses. But most importantly, that they can get the medical assistance they need conveniently but most importantly cheaply.
“What makes it different is that we apply digital technology and 3D Printing which are some of the most important aspects within the Fourth Industrial Revolution that Africa needs to develop a lot more. And also, to find lasting solutions to some of the medical challenges we face within Africa,” she shares with Dolapoaina.
Ink Eze, 28, Nigeria: Founder of Aso Ebi Bella.
Ink Eze is the founder of Aso Ebi Bella, a fashion tech startup that boasts of over 17 million organic weekly impressions, over 1.5 million followers across social media, while their platform, AsoEbiBella.com, has garnered over 600,000 page views in the last 11 months.
‘The #AsoEbiBella journey started with a hashtag I created in 2013 while I was an employee of BellaNaija.com where I convinced my employer to launch a then bi-weekly, now weekly AsoEbiBella feature on their site as it garnered millions of website views, it became my side hustle’, she shares with Forbes.
June Syowia, 23, Kenya: Founder of Beiless Group.
June Syowia is not your archetypal 20-year-old. While her age-mates are more engaged with friends, parties and squeezing in some few extra hours for studies, June is busy running not one, but two businesses and all this while acting as a consultant to a community-based organisation which she helped start in 2013.
June Syowia, founded Beiless in 2015, a company that provides creative advertising and technology solutions for businesses. Services include online media campaigns, social media management, strategic online communication, digital advertising and content creation.
“My biggest passion is growing. I work with a team of creative thinkers. We are five of us in the company and always very enterprising. We call ourselves teammates, and set up high targets for ourselves,” she told People Daily.
Yasmine El Baggari, 25, Morocco: Founder Of Voyaj.
Yasmine El Baggari launched Voyaj, as an online platform that connects people from around the globe for one-on-one meaningful exchanges to foster global understanding. Similar to Airbnb, with Vojaj, you can travel as a guest and welcome others as a host. She received the Royal Air Maroc Award from the African Studies Association, Hampshire College’s $60,000 Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and two Ingenuity Awards.
‘My story is of a young girl who wanted to travel to and study in the U.S., who was inspired by many warm and welcoming U.S. hosts, and whose dream grew into to a dedication to unite people from around the world. From the day I arrived on the campus of Hampshire College, I’ve been passionate about what I wanted to do. Hampshire College let me design my own major, and supported me to take some time off to start Voyaj. Now I am back at school to develop all of my passions further‘, Yasmine El Baggari shares with Huffington Post.
