Cape Town – South African women stood their own when they claimed two prizes and a number of runner-up prizes at the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) annual awards.The awards took place on Friday showcasing a diverse representation of finalists from across the continent.
Finalists came from as far as Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. Kenya took three of the eight awards.
South African entrepreneur and winner of the AWIEF Young Entrepreneur Award, Nomso Faith Kana, is the founder and managing director of a fibre-optic cable manufacturing company called Sun n Shield 84 Technologies.
Wendy Luhabe, chairperson of the Women Private Equity Fund, walked away with South Africa’s second award when she received the lifetime achievement award.
Runners-up from South Africa included Margaret Hirsch for the lifetime achievement award and CodeSpace founder, Emma Dicks.
The awards have grown from entries of just under 300 last year when they launched, to 1200 this year.
The theme for this year’s awards was “Unleashing ideas: Innovation, sustainability and enterprise growth”.
AWIEF founder and chief executive Irene Ochem said judges were chosen from thought leaders in the various sectors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“AWIEF remains Africa’s number one voice in driving the agenda for women’s leadership in business.
“The AWIEF brand has grown tremendously over these few years through the sustained support of our trusted partners, local and international, underscoring the great values of AWIEF programmes and projects in accelerating women entrepreneurship as a catalyst of inclusive economic growth.”
The AWIEF brand has grown tremendously over these few years through the sustained support of our trusted partners, local and international, underscoring the great values of AWIEF programmes and projects in accelerating women entrepreneurship as a catalyst of inclusive economic growth.”
“Their documented or prospective impact on community development and the economy was also assessed.
“Thereafter, our judges decided on five finalists in each category and one winner,” said Ochem.
“It is with great pleasure, immense honour and a deep admiration, that we salute our 2018 AWIEF Awards finalists and winners who have sailed through AWIEF rigorous scrutiny to meet the prescribed criteria and, most importantly, for being a beacon of hope and inspiration in their communities and organisations.”