Botswana, Uganda, and Ghana have the highest concentration of female entrepreneurs in Africa

Nigeria is ranked second in the world for female professional and technical workers. By 2025, Mastercard will have connected 25 million women to the digital economy.

With the highest concentration of female entrepreneurs, Botswana, Uganda, and Ghana are ahead of other African countries.

This is according to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs for 2021. (MIWE). Botswana tops other countries in the area for the third year in a row, with 38.5 percent, followed by Uganda (38.4%) and Ghana (37.2 percent).

The benchmark indicator for the Index is expressed as a percentage of all business owners.

The most recent edition of the MIWE highlights the importance of women entrepreneurs’ contributions around the world, notably in Africa, and provides insights into the variables that drive or impede their growth.

Women’s growth in many African countries is limited by less encouraging entrepreneurial environment, a lack of funding, less options for higher-level education, and structural hurdles, according to MIWE. Botswana, on the other hand, is among the 15 countries with the most progressed outcomes for women, notably in terms of income, according to the report.

Botswana also ranks 13th in the world for women’s labor force participation rates, according to MIWE 2021.

Although ‘women’s entrepreneurial activity rates have declined in most economies, a number of African countries have seen gains in this area, indicating a strong positive entrepreneurial response to the pandemic,’ according to MIWE. Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, South Africa, and Botswana all did well in the category of “women’s entrepreneurial activity rate,” with Nigeria, Angola, and Ghana tied for first position. Despite the fact that government SME support in Nigeria and Angola ranked 62 and 53, respectively, and overall access to credit ranked 61 and 63, these activity rate rankings persist.

Ghana ranked 44th for government SME support and 37th for access to funding in these categories. In terms of entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions, Ghana is rated sixth in the world (69.7%).

Women’s entrepreneurial activity outpaced men’s in both Nigeria and Angola, according to the report, despite women’s marginalization in terms of possibilities. Both economies have a robust, upbeat culture in which business prospects are seen.

According to the survey, women’s aspirations to become more financially independent are boosted by these good and healthy entrepreneurial mindsets.

According to MIWE, Nigeria placed second in the world for the number of female professional and technical workers, with a score of 59.1%, while Angola ranked second in hiring intentions, with 16.4% of individuals expecting to hire six or more people in the next five years.

Angola also ranks first in the world for female opportunity-driven entrepreneurship and sixth for self-perceived business ability.

Women in Botswana, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola, according to Mastercard’s Country Manager and Area Business Head for West Africa, Ebehijie Momoh, stand out as excellent examples of women’s determination to provide for themselves and their families despite financial, regulatory, and technical challenges. He claims that in the affected countries, women are able to take advantage of opportunities to be business owners, leaders, and professional or technical workers by leveraging opportunities in their unique contexts.

According to the report, despite socio-cultural barriers and infrastructural constraints such as a lack of government SME support, poor access to entrepreneurial finances, and a severe lack of educational opportunities, women in Malawi continue to defy the odds and are making strong inroads in the business world. On a global scale, Malawi has one of the smallest gender discrepancies in entrepreneurial activity rates.

Despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic and the economic crisis, Mastercard’s research shows that women entrepreneurs in Africa, particularly in low and middle-income economies, are resilient and flexible, often outperforming males in terms of entrepreneurial activity.

The survey emphasized that the entrepreneurial spirit sees every day as an opportunity to reimagine, refresh, and reinvent – a distinguishing factor for women’s business success long before the current crisis.

“For future economic growth, it is critical to continue to build the necessary social, political, and financial understanding and conditions for this entrepreneurial spirit to succeed. Government programs that specifically boost women’s entrepreneurship can also help to speed up and balance the recovery.”

Meanwhile, Mastercard made a global commitment to link 25 million women entrepreneurs to the digital economy by 2025 as part of its goal to building a world where women entrepreneurs are equally represented and encouraged. Not only will empowering women’s entrepreneurship function as a catalyst for growth and innovation, but it will also lift up the communities around successful women and create a more equitable and sustainable global recovery for all, according to the business.

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