Approximately eighty women gathered at the "Women and Finance" Seminar which was hosted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), in partnership with Mazra Solutions and the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL).

The seminar which was held on May 3rd, at the DBSA headquarters expressed support for targeted programmes and improved access to finance for women, in pursuit of an inclusive economy in South Africa.

The Seminar is part of a Financial Inclusion Seminar Series and was hosted by the DBSA in partnership with the UNISA SBL and Mazra Solutions, a strategic management and consulting firm.

Addressing the Seminar, prominent businessperson Dolly Mokgatle of the Peotona Group called on women not to be daunted by perceived challenges of becoming entrepreneurs.

Drawing on her personal experiences at Eskom, and in business leadership, she urged them to develop personal and business competitiveness and ambition in order to blaze a new terrain.

Turning her attention to government she called for the success rate of existing programmes of women entrepreneurship programmes to be re-examined and the role of the Women’s Ministry to be improved.

At the same time the private commercial banks needed to come to the party, "Smart financiers should know that funding women entrepreneurial business is tapping into a great resource for future growth and prosperity"’, she added.

The Seminar participants were drawn from the financial sector, including commercial banks and the development finance institutions, government, business, community groups and academia. Among the panelists were representatives of the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), Absa, and the Land Bank. A representative from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was one of the keynote speakers. Notable for their presence were delegates from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

The Seminar’s two panels discussed "Innovative approaches to financing women entrepreneurs’’ and “Finance and support in action", respectively, in what were frank and constructive engagements by panelists with quality participation from the audience.

There was an acknowledgement of the various innovative approaches that financial institutions have adopted in order to fund women entrepreneurs but that more can be done to better serve women from different sectors and owning firms at different stages of development.

The role of the Land Bank and women’s access to finance for farming and entrepreneurship, innovative financing solutions, and real experiences of women entrepreneurs in accessing finance took the center stage in the second Panel.

In her concluding remarks Dr Michele Ruiters (DBSA) welcomed the inputs and robust discussions between the panelists and participants at the Seminar, indicating that they would serve as a contribution to the review of the Financial Sector Charter and forthcoming Financial Sector Summit.

The Seminar had achieved its objectives of providing a platform for a dialogue to review current funding structures and to discuss successes and challenges that affect women owned businesses.

It formed part of on-going efforts of support to women entrepreneurs to ensure a financially inclusive society.

The message from the participants had been unequivocal, “Equitable and easy access to finance is key to leverage the potential of women to participate in ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION”, as one presenter had summed up in a discussion.

Among the responses suggested were a ‘’comprehensive targeted strategy’’ for women entrepreneurs that would address policy ‘incongruence’ and be holistic in approach, in a similar fashion as the ‘’Black Industrialist’’ programme.

By DBSA, Unisa