New guide to help women entrepreneurs tap into digital tech
The Mastercard MEA SME Confidence Index found that 89 per cent of SMEs in the region see potential in digitalising their business.
What you need to know:
- The playbook provides seven key business dimensions for women to assess in their business from a digital transformation perspective.
- It was developed with the support of the African Development Bank through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative.
A new guide has been launched to help African women entrepreneurs leverage digital technology to grow their businesses.
The guide is aimed at providing first-hand tips on how to kick-start and implement a digital transformation roadmap to build business resilience to Covid-19 and other shocks.
The Digital Transformation Playbook for Africa's Entrepreneurs is the first in a series of digital tools for women entrepreneurs, produced by the Lionesses of Africa Public Benefit Corporation.
The playbook provides seven key business dimensions for women to assess in their business from a digital transformation perspective, which includes leadership and strategy, technology, cybersecurity, business process, people, marketing and sales, and financial transactions.
The playbook was developed with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative (Afawa).
Personal playbooks
AfDB, in a press release, said the playbook will feature 24 leading African women entrepreneurs who share their personal digital transformation “playbooks”.
Esther Marieme Dassanou, the bank’s manager for Afawa, noted that digital transformation can be a game changer for women-led enterprises.
She said it can also help accelerate access to finance, markets, knowledge and innovation for a segment that until now has been largely unserved.
“Digital transformation may also lift unconscious biases that added to the barriers women faced pre-Covid,” Ms Dassanou said.
The 100 Lionesses Playbook series provides practical business advice and insights delivered directly by leading African women entrepreneurs selected from the organisation’s 100 Lionesses network.
Experienced entrepreneurs share their proven hacks, tactics and strategies for getting things done in business. The knowledge is shared in an easy-to-read format for women entrepreneurs to apply to their own businesses.
Melanie Hawken, Lionesses of Africa founder and CEO, said women-owned businesses need to build resilience during disruptive and turbulent times, adding that digital transformation is key to successfully navigating these challenges.
She said having essential digital infrastructure in place means having the ability to stay agile, to react quickly to both opportunities and threats.
“Digital-enabled activity can drive efficiency and productivity levels and reduce operating costs whilst creating tools to tap into new market opportunities.”
Overcoming Covid-19 effects
Many of the women entrepreneurs interviewed underscored the need for businesses to embrace digital technology to survive, more so during this Covid-19 crisis.
Dr Dorcas Muthoni, a leading Kenyan entrepreneur, said she was forced to use new marketing tools to maximise her company’s online presence and engagement levels. The computer scientist is the CEO and founder of Open World and Open Business Africa, an e-Government and Business Software Services form in East Africa.
“Women entrepreneurs should embrace technology, get help when they need it and to test out different tools so that they feel confident in the digital environment,” said Dr Muthoni.
Anabela Marcos, the founder of Gestao Professional in Angola, said the Covid-19 pandemic made her realise the importance of digital technology. The company helps Angolan companies improve their talent management to get the best out of their employees.
“If Gestao Professional was not operating effectively because of the pandemic, how could it provide services to other businesses? Companies need to make sure that they use tools that provide the possibility to be more productive and organised and then make sure to have a presence in social media,” Ms Marcos said.
Ms Christelle Kwizera, an entrepreneur from Rwanda, also underscored the need for businesses to adopt digital technology. She is the founder of Water Access, a social enterprise producing simple, affordable and durable water solutions in East Africa.
Automation
Her company, she said, has used technology and automated as many administrative steps as possible for applicants.
“This has helped our staff have contracts ready for signing when they arrive on site and spend less time in the field. We, nowadays, do everything on the phone, which has really simplified the work,” she said.
A survey by Master Card released in August last year revealed that women-owned small and medium enterprises are leading the way in tapping into the power of the digital economy to succeed and grow.
According to the inaugural Master Card Middle East and Africa (MEA), about 81 per cent of the region’s women entrepreneurs have digital presence for their businesses, compared to 68 per cent of their male counterparts.
In terms of a digital footprint of the women entrepreneurs, social media leads the way at 71 per cent, followed by company websites (57 per cent).
The survey also found that more women entrepreneurs had a website at 71 per cent than a social media presence at 55 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa.
It showed confidence levels around digital transactions are high, with 30 per cent of women entrepreneurs in MEA experiencing no challenges in accepting more payments digitally versus cash payments, especially mobile payments (62 per cent), online payments (57 per cent) and card payments (45 per cent).
