Despite overwhelming challenges women face in the workplace, “they are not helpless,” they will follow their dreams, work to the hardest and achieve their business goals, was a core message on day two of a United Nations forum on sustainable development last week.
“This is a chance for everyone around the world – policy makers, investors, those in technology, to realize that women are not waiting for handouts, they are looking for opportunities. An opportunity is not a handout,” said Adot Killmeyer-Oleche, the Chief of UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Institute for Capacity Development.
“Women in the private sector represent a powerful source of economic growth and opportunity,” said Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank’s director for poverty reduction and economic management for Africa.
“In Africa, you see women working a lot,” noted Markus Goldstein, a development economist in the gender department of the World Bank. “They are very active in the labour market.” According to World Bank data, nearly two-thirds of women are participating in Africa’s labour force. The rate of female entrepreneurship is higher in Africa than in any other region of the world, the World Bank says.
Women are doing business in ways that support families including the myriad cross-border traders found throughout sub-Saharan Africa; women selling used clothes and tin kitchenware; hair stylists; and owners of fashion salons, small food stores and even watering holes (catering almost exclusively to men).
In 21st-century Africa, businesswomen are pushing into the national scenes of their countries as movers and shakers of industry.
“I am very happy and proud for being a female entrepreneur,” Mariam Conteh, a men’s clothing boutique owner, said. “When I was young, they said ‘ woman is a woman — a man should take care of you.”’
“But women are actually contributing a lot more than men. We always find ourselves multi-tasking,” she said, “between working and raising a family. If it could be equated in terms of currency, it would be 80% of the economy.”
The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) for 2015 pointed out that Sierra Leone comes a disturbing and worrying 128th out of the 132 countries surveyed. With the recent Global Entrepreneurship Index showing Sierra Leone to be almost at the bottom of the table, there is need now to start paying serious attention to this problem.
Apart from the fact that Sierra Leone is close to the bottom of the table, it is also frightening to see that Sierra Leone slipped five places down, from last year’s ranking when we were 123rd with a little participation of women in businesses unlike Nigeria with the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs in the Africa.
Sierra Leone stands below the likes of Uganda (123), Benin (124), Burkina Faso (126), Madagascar (127), and Mauritania (129); with Malawi (130), Burundi (131) and Chad (132).
According to the Washington based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute who produced the report, Sierra Leone scores 14.6 compared to the best score of 86.2 by the top-ranking country – the United States, followed by Canada, Australia, Denmark and Sweden.
Zainab T. Clarkson, a business consultant, stated, “With entrepreneurship widely accepted as the engine of economic growth, employment creation, prosperity and global competitiveness, Sierra Leone must do more to develop this sector, if it is to have any chance of coming out of its current economic predicament.”
The report also says that Sierra Leone scores 14.2 in entrepreneurial attitude; 21 in entrepreneurial abilities and only 10 in entrepreneurial aspirations.
The World Bank’s global ‘Doing Business Report 2016, which measures regulatory, quality and efficiency in doing business, ranks Sierra Leone at 180 among 189 economies.
“For a weak economy, such as Sierra Leone, strengthening the institutional foundations for entrepreneurial activity, as well as gradually developing the human capital and physical infrastructure is compulsory, if we are to improve living standards. What is also needed is a combination of strong anti-competitive policies and stronger supply-chain linkages to promote a more open economy.” Clarkson stated.
She noted, “Women have challenges at all levels – traditionally they have had challenges getting education and training or made to enter trades ‘more associated’ with their gender.”
One of the key ways to address such challenge is “reforming laws and policies, integrating the gender dimensions. Another area of focus is training and education to ensure that young women and men are imparted with the necessary skills to become entrepreneurs and are able to carefully analyze risks.
Using technology and innovative solutions, such as crowd-sourcing or community financing can help overcome some challenges, in particular those relating to accessing finance.” said Yvonne Johnson.
SV/7/11/17
By Sylvia Villa
Wednesday November 08, 2017.
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