Johannesburg, As South Africa looks forward to Women’s month when the critical and diverse roles of women in society will be celebrated, Womanomics Africa, in collabora􀆟on with the US Embassy in South Africa, will launch the Kgwebo international Trade Readiness Programme (Kgwebo Programme) in Midrand on Friday, 21 July 2023. 

The Kgwebo Programme is aimed at South African women entrepreneurs who have the potential to provide goods and services to the US market. The programme is premised on the realisation that while increased cross border and international trade hold great promise for South Africa and the continent, women remain on the periphery of the most valuable aspects of this activity, with their capacity for growth limited and meaningful participation reduced. 

The Kgwebo Programme will leverage international trade as an instrument to accelerate women’s meaningful participation in economies, particularly the existing Bilateral Economic Relations between South African and the USA. The programme is designed in partnership with the United States State Department and aims to create a pool of South African growth-oriented women owned and managed businesses in the agribusiness value-chain that are ready to trade across borders particularly with the USA. 

The key objec􀆟ves of the KGWEBO Programme are: 

• To provide South African women entrepreneurs with opportunities to expand their market reach to the United States of America. 

• To offer technical skills and resources to the programme participants to enable their successful expansion into the export market. 

• To create links between the programme participants in South Africa with foreign partners who can facilitate access to markets and capital. 

• To leverage digital technology in the roll out of the programme and development of solutions 

“We have selected agribusiness because it is one of the key trade sectors between the US and South Africa. Further to this, it is a sector that forms the backbone of the African economy and according to the African Development Bank, predicted to reach US$1 trillion by 2030. Similarly in South Africa, agriculture is one of the key sectors to drive economic recovery and job creation, while potentially having a broad-based impact on rural communities.” remarked Lebo Biko, Co-Founder of Womanomics Africa. 

Women entrepreneurs continue to face challenges and obstacles that limit their competitiveness and ability to participate meaningfully, and thus many of them do not derive much value from trade. These challenges range from women traders and producers operating in the informal economy, low production volumes, limited access to relevant education and information, limited funding, limited access to networks and supporting ecosystems, all this contributes to lower profits. 

It is envisaged that the programme will yield key outcomes that will help boost business growth for participants by providing viable trade links created between programme participants and foreign markets, competent exporters developed, increase in turnover in participant’s business atributable to exports, export strategy developed for women participants and an export business plan with defined goals and strategies. 

Womanomics Africa is excited about the partnership with the US Embassy as it will not only result in tangible result for the 10 agri-businesses that will start the programme this week, but it is the beginning of a long-term sustainable development business with real value for African women entrepreneurs.