Spotlight on women entrepreneurship
30 October 2019
Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato this week welcomed women entrepreneurs and business specialists from across the continent to Cape Town for the 5th annual Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF).
“Promoting and supporting women economic empowerment is vitally important,” said Mayor Plato at the opening plenary.
“Here in Cape Town we have a number of tools to assist entrepreneurs, one of those being our Business Hub. It connects people with the right support, skills, market and opportunity. It is located in the heart of our Central Business District, allowing easier access to more people. The hub has helped a number of female-owned businesses succeed and expand.”
Plato added that women must have the same rights as men to be able to compete on the same level in business.
“Along with promoting women-owned business and providing the skills support to help the business grow, one aspect cannot be overlooked: equality,” he said. “The planned outcomes of this forum are steps which can be taken to help reach this goal of equality.”
AWIEF is a pan-African women economic empowerment organisation which nurtures and actively promotes women innovation and entrepreneurship through its development programmes, accelerators, and networking events, including the annual AWIEF conference, exhibition and awards.
AWIEF’s mission is to foster the economic inclusion, advancement and empowerment of women in Africa through entrepreneurship support and development.
The 2019 event brought together more than 60 industry experts and thought leaders with diverse perspectives to dialogue on key issues and trends in women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in Africa. The forum took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 28 – 30 October 2019.
For more information, visit https://www.awieforum.org/.
