Empowering women to venture into entrepreneurship

By Bongiwe Zwane-Maseko

For many years, women have always been expected to be in the back while men took the reigns and led from the front. They have been playing the role of followers and in most institutions, being workers instead of decision-makers.

Plans are afoot to change that and empower women to be in the driving seats of businesses and enterprises. A seminar is being hosted and women entrepreneurs have been invited to an empowerment event themed “Reigniting Entrepreneurship energy”.

This event is set not only to motivate women to collaborate but also to equip them with all the necessary skills to be successful entrepreneurs. The event will be held at the Happy Valley Hotel on April 29 and is a follow-up to a similar one that was held last year.

According to Event Organiser Thandeka Dlamini, successful entrepreneurs have been invited to share their success stories. These include entrepreneurs from all sectors – including bakers, hairdressers, farmers, hospitality, and health.

“We intend to invite all institutions that offer financial assistance towards starting and growing a business. This is to assist cut down the level of unemployment which has greatly increased due to Covid-19 as most companies had to close and high numbers of employees have been jobless and some experienced retrenchment”, she said.

Dlamini adds that after the event, they hope the women will be empowered and equipped with the rightful information and skills to start their businesses and make a living out of them.

“In this event, women will be empowered to take the lead and make it happen. It has always been known that women should follow and be led, thus the need for such motivation reignites the entrepreneurship spirit in women,” she said.

Dlamini said such forums do not only increase business development but also decrease cases of suicide and depression as women will be empowered to be busy and try to make a living out of something depending on the business entity they will engage in.

“Since many businesses struggle in financial management and cutting operation costs, these will be some topics to be covered by financial institutions to ensure when we leave this event we are well equipped on how to manage finances as this is the main contributing factor to business failure. After this event, we believe solutions to some challenges faced by women in entrepreneurship will be acquired,” she said.