17 Aug 2025

Empowering women, especially those in the business space, has been hailed as one of the many solutions to build a resilient economy, particularly in the wake of economic upheavals.

Acting Head of Communications for ABSA Bank, Mr Spencer Moreri, remarked during the bank’s women’s empowerment workshop, which coincided with Women’s Month in Francistown on August 1 , that women had made great strides in shaping the country’s economic landscape for years.

He said women continued to create employment for young people in the various business undertakings and inspire posterity. The workshop, according to Mr Moreri, was aimed at building on the already established progress, finding solutions to the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and creating a platform for innovation to ensure women thrived in their respective businesses.

On compliance, ABSA’s Compliance, Governance, and Risk Manager, Ms Gaongalelwe Rapelang, implored women in business to ensure total compliance with regulations governing their business ventures to keep legal pitfalls at bay.

This, she stated, would be achieved by women taking deliberate steps to inform themselves with existing business laws.

Ms Rapelang said businesses that had a good grasp had better chances of making a profit and reducing litigation, which were often stumbling blocks to business growth. “Complying, for instance, with workplace safety standards through the use of safety equipment, retention, and keeping of records are of paramount importance to avoid having brushes with the law and avoiding workplace accidents,” she said.

Data Protection Act, she relayed, was another piece of legislation that companies’ top brass needed to know and implement at all times. In general, Ms Rapelang advised women entrepreneurs to adopt the notion that ‘the customer is always right’ and ensure ethical behaviour in the workplace.

Commenting, Dr Koziba Malibala of KDM Global Group said the primary hiccup was that individuals who formulate business laws often had little to no knowledge of business operations.

She thus called on ABSA and other interested parties that promoted Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to extend invitations to regulators to be part of similar engagements in the future to close existing gaps, a thing that Mr Moreri assured would be taken care of.

Additionally, women in business were advised to participate in various policy-making forums to ensure their voices were heard. ENDS