WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS SHOW DRIVE AND INNOVATION

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Women entrepreneurs show drive and innovation
Joelene Ephraim

07 August 2007 at 11h00

South African women make a vital contribution to the economy and nation-building of our country. While women make up 52 percent of the adult population in South Africa, they make up only 41 percent of the working population and only 14.7 percent of all executive managers and 7.1 percent of all directors in the country are women .

It is imperative for women to enter the mainstream economy either as business owners or in the corporate world - and our country's efforts to integrate women into the mainstream economic agenda, and the need for women to benefit fully from national economic development. This poses a serious challenge to all of us.

The transformation of the South African economy will not be complete until both women and men have equal participation in the economy. The low level of participation by women in the formal economy, as either small business owners or entrepreneurs, has for a long time been recognised as a problem in South Africa. It is important to recognise the important role that women can and do play in growing the South African economy and in creating jobs.

It must be acknowledged that there has not been significant progress in ensuring that women become economically self-reliant and have control over economic resources. Empowerment deals should consider women's participation as a priority, but critical to all this is to ensure that economic transformation leads to a reduction in poverty, and that women become active participants in the nation's empowerment agenda, as they make up a significant portion of the South African population.

Our experience has shown that women are generally very good at setting and pursuing goals. And they demonstrate a marked ability to find innovative ways of doing so. Women demonstrate a rare combination of attributes. Not only do they have vision, ambition, financial discipline and staying power, they also have excellent insight into the needs of their target markets and the skills to deliver world-class products and services.

Our aim at Business Partners is to make it easier than ever before for women to enter into business. We are supportive of fostering women's entrepreneurial spirit, leadership and business acumen, and the undisputed ability of women to transform themselves and their world with conviction, passion and excellence.

Independent enterprise is one of the most important vehicles for the empowerment of women in South Africa today. The Business Partners vision is to enable more women entrepreneurs to take up meaningful roles in the business community. To this end, as part of strategy to increase its footprint in the women-owned SME arena, we made a strategic decision to create the Business Partners Women's Fund.

By assisting women's wealth and job creation for themselves and thus contributing to the growth of the economy, the Business Partners Women's Fund is at the forefront of shifting the dynamics of the SME market to embody gender equality. Many women are starting and expanding sustainable businesses and the fund will assist them with finance and mentoring. Women have a far better opportunity of empowering themselves as entrepreneurs than they do in regular employment or big business.

Approximately 14 new jobs are created every time we invest in a woman-owned business. The fund will offer a unique opportunity to women who propose sustainable business ideas or want to expand their existing enterprises on an independent level. The fund will be managed by a specialist team of women, lead by its fund manager, Katja Naumann, who is supported by a team of professional women financiers in Gauteng, the Cape Province and KZN with long-term plans to expand into the other six provinces.