Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs: Obuntu Dada
This article has been written by the brilliant Urvi Amin.
Obuntu Hub believes in empowering entrepreneurs to drive socio-economic development in Tanzania and beyond. We believe that this can only be achieved if all youth, female and male, are given the opportunities and support needed to reach their full potential.
In Tanzania “majority of women entrepreneurs are aged between 25 and 40 years and have a low level of education (ILO, 2014).” This coupled with a myriad of social reasons, women entrepreneurs do not always make the headlines in Tanzania even though many are extremely inspiring. It goes on to show that no matter how many barriers they must overcome, many women are being bold and launching their own businesses. This is what led us to host the first “Obuntu Dada” event as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2020 in partnership with Infinate Solutions and Tanzania Startup Association (TSA). GEW is a week celebrated in 180 countries that aims to connect entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and other start-up champions. We wanted to celebrate some of our women entrepreneurs’ journeys and achievements in order to inspire other women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
Leading to the main event, we had a series of female entrepreneurs who shared a secret of something they have learned in their journey so far dubbed the Siri 7 (7 Secrets) campaign. Each day we would feature an entrepreneur on our social media platforms, and they shared one secret each. Their secrets are as follows:
“Be brave and willing to learn all the time”- Judith Singibala
“Fighting your fear with determination and prayers”- Catherine Kihoro
“Accountability”-Hawa Sindika
“Balancing and prioritizing your duties at work”- Mariam Samwel Werema
“Like challenges and find solutions for them”- Meriana Charles
“It’s all about providing value for your target audience”- Laura Minde
Much can be learned from bringing female entrepreneurs from different sectors and stages together for a panel discussion. Moderated by Ellen Mndima, founder of a digital consultancy called Infinate Solutions, our panellists were Hawa Kipilili, Mariam Werema and Laura. Hawa being the founder of Senda Success that provides teachers training and consultancy. Mariam is the founder of NeriVo Enterprises that provides auditing, accounting, human resource, digital marketing, event management, payroll and business consulting services. Last but not least, Laura Minde, is the founder of Outstanding Solutions which provides training to people in the hospitality sector.
Their journeys covered a great depth of knowledge and learning for everyone, regardless of the sector you may be in. They highlighted in particular the importance of being brave, taking risks, stepping out of your comfort zone. Two ideas that really stood out were “the world has space for everyone, we shouldn’t fight and bring each other down” and “learn every day” shared by Mariam and Ellen, respectively. With this inspiration anything is possible!
Participants from the audience were also given the chance to speak about some of their entrepreneurial experiences as women. They shared some of the problems they were facing and as a whole we helped brainstorm some possible solutions they could consider. The best part about this was seeing how women can uplift each other. Moreover, a common theme that we saw amongst them was none of them ended up in the field they studied in. They explained that in many Tanzanian households, their parents made decisions on behalf of them and what they should study. Mariam shared:
“I went to Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya where I went to study IT. My father disagreed with this and said you cannot be studying IT because they work till 2am and made a joke about how he wants grandkids. He then came to visit me in university when I was doing orientation and in the middle of it, he said there is one student who doesn’t belong here and pointed at me. He took me straight to the Dean and signed me up for the Bachelor of Commerce degree”.
After this Mariam was still able to go on to start her own company and worked her way up from there. The other speakers had similar experiences and have come a long way before they ended up where they are and because of their drive and goals they wanted to achieve, they made their wishes come true. Regardless of what their parents told them to study, they knew they did not want to end up in that field, so they all worked their way up and started their own businesses. The bottom line is, everything is possible if you have the right mindset, determination and motivation.
We are so very proud of the women entrepreneurs in Arusha, in Tanzania and the world at large. It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur and even more so for female entrepreneurs who must not only deal with the business risks but also society’s hurdles fueled by gender discrimination. The women entrepreneurs we had the pleasure of hearing from during the first Obuntu Dada brought to life Michelle Obama’s quote that “there is no limit to what we as women can accomplish.” We look forward to seeing this community grow and to helping more female entrepreneurs start and grow their enterprises to achieve their dreams and beyond!
