Seychelles joins African women entrepreneur’s digital platform |26 August 2020
Guests in a souvenir photograph after the launch (Photo: Joena Meme)
By Elsie Pointe
Seychelles has joined 37 other African countries on the 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWS), a web and mobile-based platform to better facilitate women in business.
It was the event’s guest of honour, President Danny Faure, who officially launched the platform in Seychelles.
The national launch of 50MAWS was held yesterday at the Eden Bleu Hotel in a hybrid event attended by Minister for Family Affairs Mitcy Larue, principal secretary for family affairs Marie-Josée Bonne, chief executive of Enterprise Seychelles Agency (Esa) Angelique Appoo and virtually by the secretary general for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Chileshe Kapwepwe, and other Comesa representatives.
Yesterday’s launch forms part of Comesa’s roll out of the platform in 14 member states between August and November 2020, largely through virtual means owing to restrictions caused by the pandemic.
The platform which is accessible at www.womenconnect.org primarily seeks to economically empower women by providing a one-stop shop for a wide range of financial and non-financial services that women need to start and grow successful businesses.
It is jointly implemented by Comesa, the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and is funded by the African Development Bank.
It was continentally unveiled during the Global Gender Summit in November 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda, with the aim of enabling women in member and partner states of Comesa, EAC and Ecowas and other African countries to find information on how to run businesses, where to access financial services, how to create business opportunities online and where to access training resources.
Part of the Comesa trade bloc, Seychellois female entrepreneurs are set to benefit from the platform and a few have already started to register.
Other countries in the region that form part of the network include Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar and Tanzania.
Although the 50MAWS platform for Seychelles was developed and kick-started by the department of family affairs, now that it has been launched the platform will fall under the responsibility of Esa.
In his address, President Faure stated that 50MAWS comes at an opportune moment when women entrepreneurs in Seychelles and the region are facing social and economic challenges.
He noted that Seychelles is one of the smallest countries in the Comesa but its big achievements are proof that the contributions of Seychellois women are at the core of the country’s transformation.
“The 50 Million African Women Speak platform comes at a time when the world needs to come together and work together more than ever, following the social and cultural disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said President Faure.
“Seychelles is grateful to the Comesa and African Development Bank for this investment. I am convinced that this, in addition to numerous other programmes government is putting in place, will benefit many families and enable them to overcome the challenges they face,” he added.
On her part Mrs Kapwepwe commended Seychelles on organising the launch of the 50MAWS to coincide with the Orange Day which is observed every 25th of each month to unite and raise awareness against gender-based violence (GBV).
“This launch was initially planned for March this year but in the case of many other Comesa member states, the onset of Covid-19 pandemic disrupted our plans. The fact that my team and I at Comesa are joining this launch virtually is indeed confirmation of the disruption this pandemic has caused in the way we do business.”
She noted that doing business online has now become the new normal and the need for digitising business models have been made more pronounced by the pandemic.
In that respect, Mrs Kapwepwe highlighted that the 50MAWS platform has been designed with women in mind, offering an abundance of resources for them to rise above social and economic barriers, even to escape from GBV.
Minister Larue noted that female entrepreneurship provides women with real choices and empowers them to become more self-sufficient.
“For the past 12 months we have been working with the national content developer, Betty Mondon, to deliver the contents on the 50MAWS platform in order to make that change for women. Empower them to self-sufficiency and to contribute towards the economy of their country by venturing into the realm of entrepreneurship.
The 50 Million African Women Speak platform aims to facilitate a dynamic and engaging exchange of ideas among women entrepreneurs, using in-built social media functionality to connect them with one another in ways that will foster peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and the sharing of information and knowledge within communities, and access to financial services and market opportunities between urban and rural areas, and across borders and between countries.
“It will also facilitate access to training, business management tools and financing options specifically targeted to women. The expected outcome is to directly impact 50 million African women and create fair waged jobs for young people from the increased business activities and capital flow. We at the Ministry of Family Affairs hope that this platform unites women across our many countries to level the playing field for women,” added the minister.
50MAWS is available on www.womenconnect.org and on Google Play Store on Apple App Store in English, French and Arabic.
