How Absa Bank is Helping Women Take Their Businesses To The Next level

Women are the powerful agents of change and the far-reaching benefits, diversity, and gender parity in leadership and decision-making are increasingly being recognized in all spheres.

Women leaders and decision-makers are critical in advancing and furthering economic, social, and political progress.

However, undertaking to walk this journey has never been an easy task for most women.

An International Trade Centre survey on the Covid-19 impact among businesses in 136 countries shows that 62 percent of women-led small businesses have been affected by the crisis, compared to just over half of firms led by men. The stats also showed that women-owned businesses were 27 percent more likely not to survive the pandemic.

Other factors that have partly attributed to the fall of women-led businesses across Africa also include inadequate access to capital, shallow networking, limited business opportunities, and as well as lack of financial propositions. These are the hurdles that women need to overcome to reach the pick of their success

Fortunately, Absa bank believes in the potential of women and the strength they possess to have influence. It is for this reason that the bank has undertaken to work with and empower these women to fiercely assume positions in the business world by elevating and building or improving their self-esteem to break the ceiling and beat the bias.

The bank, through a series of programs such as the InspireMe Conference 2022 training sessions, has brought on board successful women to tell their stories to inspire others to believe in themselves and start engaging in the unusual worthy ventures that will bring out who they are.

The journey to InspireMe conference began in 2021, to gather local, continental, and global women business titans with expansive accomplishments to deliberate on business, leadership, and other women-related issues to inspire confidence, and hope that strengthens and apprehend participants to effortlessly work towards unleashing their potentials.

With the theme “My business, my world, my impact,” the second edition of the InspireMe Conference 2022 recognized and celebrated the resilience and efforts of women who have tirelessly to climb up the ladder to leadership positions that were traditionally left only for their male g counterparts.

The program has successfully worked across the African continent with notable forces being Kenya, Zambia, and Ghana.

With such sessions, Absa Bank aims to provide extensive capacity-building, a networking platform that also helps women get insights into how they can get compatible partnerships, financial support for their small businesses, as well as how and where to market them.

The key speakers during the session were notable successful women entrepreneurs such as Gina Din Kariuki from Kenya and Nana Ama Yankah from Ghana, strong women who have beat all odds to become leaders who create positive impacts on their path.

What does it mean to be a woman entrepreneur?

According to the keynote speaker Gina Din Kariuki, the founder and executive chair of Gina Din Corporate and communications Kenya, in a world full of inaction, overpromising, and underdelivering, every second man claims to be an entrepreneur. What sets you apart from those who just claim to be is the fact that a woman entrepreneur is addicted to success. She believes in herself and has hope of making it despite the prevailing circumstance.

The first step to achieving this is to learn from others who have walked down the path before. But then the opposite also works best because everybody is on the journey and is still learning at every stage. Remember that a mentor without a mentor is a tormentor and a coach without a coach is a cockroach. That means we all can learn something from each other.

After learning the stories, experiences, and lessons, you now ought to start applying the same to transform. Challenge yourself and build connections that will lead you to disrupt the industry.

“Being a woman entrepreneur also means you are ready and willing to walk the journey with your other fellow women. You must undertake to ensure they also get the opportunity to do it right. This can only be done when you come together and work as a team,” Managing Director Absa Bank Zambia, Mizinga Melu explained during the session.

How is Absa helping women take their businesses to the next level?

Prioritizing diversity in leadership is not all about achieving the optimal balance, rather, it is about tapping into the full breadth and depth of talents available and equipping businesses and companies with diverse talents and viewpoints to better navigate and address the challenges in a more complex and competitive global environment.

Absa bank believes that women can help bring new perspectives and has instituted a group-wide women’s manifesto outlining specific initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion.

Through partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Africa Guarantee Fund, Absa Bank has impacted more than 20, 000 active women customers by providing both financial and non-financial support to women entrepreneurs.

In the last 5 years, Absa has partnered with the International Trade Centre through the She Trade Kenya program with an aim of creating opportunities for women businesses and entrepreneurs to enable them to participate in the global economy by building their capabilities in entrepreneurship. More than 8500 women have benefitted from the program so far.

The She Stars program offers business skills to female entrepreneurs running small enterprises, while the She Business Account, allows women-owned businesses to access funds through banking products such as unsecured and secured loans, trade finance, asset finance, property finance, and working capital facilities.

The She Business program enables women to access unsecured lending of up to ten million shillings, payable over 5 years for existing borrowers and seven million for new borrowers payable in 4 years.

Beyond the robust support for women-led SMEs, Absa Banks’ initiative to bring women together for inspiration, training, capacity building and networking sessions are pushing more women into realizing their talents, passion, and potential. Thus, getting into executive positions.

“It is true to say that when women hold more executive positions, their companies are more profitable and more likely to outperform the national average,” Head SME Agency Banking and Partnerships Absa Bank Ghana, Audrey Abakah noted briefly.

These Absa Kenya interventions are geared towards creating a robust women SME ecosystem in Kenya. The bank is committed to helping female entrepreneurs gain the necessary skills, grasp the aspects of running a profitable business, gain access to credit, and thrive.

For more information, reach out to Absa Bank Kenya today, and learn how to walk the journey as a successful female entrepreneur!