If you are a woman entrepreneur with plans to start your own business, or to grow an existing business, getting mentorship from existing entrepreneurs or membership of an entrepreneurship support group could be an important step in realising your business goals. As a first step, believe in yourself and your abilities to succeed. At GroFin , we support a number of highly successful female entrepreneurs and it is our experience that being a woman has never hindered an entrepreneur’s ability to run a profitable business. Having said that, we would also caution that women do face challenges unique to their gender which may influence their decisions when starting or growing their business. So, our GroFin Kenya investment officers spoke to two of the successful businesswomen that GroFin supports, in order to help other women entrepreneurs get their advice right from the horse’s mouth. Pamela Muyeshi, the owner of Amaica , a restaurant specialising in authentic Kenyan cuisine, and Ruth Kw...

The old story of low-skilled women entrepreneurs in the informal sector may be about to be rewritten by a fresh wave of tech-savvy and well educated women entrepreneurs. On the occasion of Women’s Month in South Africa, GroFin would like to celebrate such women and their contribution to Africa’s growth story.  If the past is any indication, women entrepreneurs have not had an easy time of it. And, African women have had it even harder. According to figures from the World Bank, while worldwide, at least 30 percent of women in the non-agricultural labour force are self-employed in the informal sector; in Africa, this figure is as high as 63 percent. But is this about to change? The World Bank study also points out that today, increasingly, women are making major strides in educational attainment at primary and secondary levels, pointing to an emerging breed of women who can become knowledge-based entrepreneurs of tomorrow. With global financial institutions like the World ...