- Title: Business forum in Senegal promotes African female entrepreneurs
- Date: 3rd May 2018
- Summary: SHOT OF COMPUTER SCREEN WEBSITE THAT SELLS KAYA PRODUCT
- Embargoed: 17th May 2018 17:20
- Keywords: Business women empowerment entrepreneurship economy
- Location: DAKAR AND TOUBAB DIALO, SENEGAL
- City: DAKAR AND TOUBAB DIALO, SENEGAL
- Country: Senegal
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0028EBFJO7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Maty Ndiaye is a Senegalese businesswoman who founded Kaya, a shop in Dakar selling clothes, toys and products for children.
But the business stalled when she needed funding to grow and Ndiaye was forced to shut down her store due to lack of capital.
Like many entrepreneurs on the continent, access to resources and opportunities are limited, and even more so for women.
"I wanted to borrow 5 million with a micro financing body and they asked me to bring the 5 million, to put those on account as a guarantee and then they would lend me 5 million. I found that outrageous. So it's really hard when we want to develop our business and we need money to inject in the business, it's really hard to get access to that type of financing. Now, apparently there are funds that are in place, but we are not necessarily aware of that," she said.
Enter Women in Africa or WIA, an initiative that promotes and funds female entrepreneurs.
WIA was founded by French businesswoman, Aude De Thuin, who had already set up a similar programme in France, called Women's Forum which gathered people from up to 130 countries.
WIA recently held a Women's Forum in Senegal, with specific focus on the challenges and solutions faced by African female entrepreneurs like Ndiaye.
The forum attracted more than 80 women from 15 countries to exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs and meet investors.
De Thuin said she wanted to harness female business power through branding and coaching, practical assistance in securing loans, building efficient management practices and networking.
"Women suffer today because they don't get enough support, enough follow-through and they don't have access to financing. And other women's forums are often about well-being or personal themes. What I do are economic summits because I want to put women back in the economy and give them a voice because they inspire trust and also because the world needs to focus on Africa," said De Thuin.
Speakers and experts were also on hand to give master classes and share their business experiences, as well as putting women in touch with investors and helping them pitch their ideas.
"By participating in this forum, it has allowed me to believe in myself more but in particular to believe in the woman that I can become, like these women leaders that I have met and with whom I took a lot of pleasure talking to and exchanging with," said 17-year-old Fatou Khouleh Wade, who dreams of being a railroad engineer.
Ndiaye says the forum helped her find at least five new clients. More importantly she found out about funding sources she was unaware of before the forum.
Ndiaye is now trying to set up her business online and is hoping to attract new customers. She also hopes to overcome customers' perceptions that 'Made in Senegal' is not as good as foreign imports.
"Challenges are everywhere. They come from the clients themselves, who don't really believe in your product because it's locally manufactured and prefer to buy from outside, that's already a big challenge and that is why I insist on the quality of the items I present, and it's also difficult to make the workers understand that, at the beginning. So it was a bit of a struggle with the workers so that they understand they needed a certain level of quality, there needs to be rigour in the making of the products and thankfully I now have a team that really understands and makes quality products."
Ndiaye hopes to invest new money and inject new energy into her business so that she can re-open the shop and grow. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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