GWEI Hosts 16 African Women Entrepreneurs

The Global Women Entrepreneurs Initiative (GWEI), founded by Ivan Allen College of the Georgia Institute of Technology, recently gathered 16 pre-selected women entrepreneurial leaders from five African countries – Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia – in Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in its inaugural Entrepreneurship Leadership Development Programme designed to showcase amazing and talented African women entrepreneurs in Africa, encourage collaboration with Atlanta-based businesses, forge trusted relationships and put them on the global map.

“It is time for women entrepreneurs to stop competing with each other, start collaborating and making money, while doing good,” the Dean of Ivan Allen College – Dean Jaqueline Jones Royste, said at the beginning of the programme.

The Nigerian participants were – Chief Executive Officer, iBez, Ommo Clark, Executive Director at Sesewa Support Services, Kunbi Adeoye, Finance Coordinator at British American Tobacco, Enitan Kuku and a Nelson Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders, and founder of Mothers Delivery Kits, Peju Jaiyeoba.

Some of the issues discussed on Day 3 were finance and legal considerations, marketing, social responsibility, mentor and mentee relationships. Some other discussions at the programme centred round why African women entrepreneurs face many barriers when starting and running businesses. The conclusion was that the greatest barriers African women entrepreneurs faced compared to their Atlanta based counterparts, had to do with our patriarchal cultures and societies, lack of access to education and finance.

The programme ended with a session on the Do’s and Don’ts of Fundraising from the CEO of Infinity Global Connections, LLC, former Multi-Cultural Brand Leader at Coca-Cola and member of GWEI advisory board, Adrienne Booth Johnson.