21 Mar 2016

Ample business opportunities exist in Namibia for Batswana women, United Africa Group chairperson and member of Namibia ruling party’s central committee, Dr Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun has said.

She was speaking at Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) women’s wing high tea on Saturday.

Dr Namundjebo-Tilahun, who owns a multi-million dollar business conglomerate in Namibia, said political leaders in the Southern African region had made strides towards achieving economic integration that created greater market access for SADC businesses including harmonisation of policies and legislations.

She said this was a fertile environment, which Batswana women must make use of and create successful business partnerships. 

She revealed that there was need for African women to combine resources in order to penetrate global market,

“The realities of modern business practices, especially in small and emerging economies requires entrepreneurs to combine efforts and resources to remain relevant and competitive in the increasingly sophisticated markets where only the toughest and best organized prevail,” she said.

Dr Namundjebo-Tilahun encouraged women to juggle their roles wisely.

“I am a living testimony that women’s roles as wives and mothers cannot and must not be used as excuses for not being able to achieve in life, throughout my business career I never regarded gender, marital and parental roles as hindrances to my success ” she said. 

She added that women should stop complaining about exclusion and begin to act on their ideas as the environment for women to compete has been created. 

She said when women enter the business arena they should adopt a ‘no nonsense’ approach to avert those who attempt to steer their own agendas in an organisation. 

“You must pursue your vision with passion and perseverance. Define what you want to be and do not let people define who you are, brand yourself, celebrate successes and failures, failures are stepping stones to success , it will never be an easy journey but you must always think positively, be patient and never lose focus, whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve it,” Dr Namundjebo-Tilahun advised.

BDP women’s wing chairperson, Ms Dorcas Makgato, said the event was meant for women to network and learn from other successful women. 

She said there was need for women who wanted to make it in business to have a strategy in place and execution plan.

“You must be on point then you will be able to get what you seek to achieve,” she said.

She said they chose the theme: Building Regional Partnerships to Achieve Entrepreneurial Success for Women; because she had noticed that the majority of women  went into business by default.

She said that should not be the case and women should be front runners in business, but there is a lot that needs to be done in terms of creating ways of getting funding for a business and finding creative ways of marketing it. 

 

She added that it was high time women step up their game towards entrepreneurship excellence. ENDS