Facebook has launched #SheMeansBusiness in South Africa, an initiative designed to inspire, empower and train female entrepreneurs to build, grow and start their own businesses.
Working in partnership with Siyafunda CTC, the programme will offer practical training in digital and business skills for female business owners.
Aiming to train more than 4 000 women in digital skills by the end of the year, Facebook will also collaborate with UN Women, to train a network of female business owners and entrepreneurs that need support in South Africa.
Providing digital marketing modules, the trainings will also cover areas such as business development, operations management, financial management and leadership. #SheMeansBusiness will begin to rollout in September running until the end of the year, across all nine provinces.
“Helping South Africa’s female business owners to achieve their business goals will only help our economy to do better,” says Emilar Gandhi, head of public policy: SADC region at Facebook. “Research conducted by Development Economics on our behalf in 2018 found that women who want to start their own businesses have the potential to boost the South African economy by R175-billion, which highlights the enormous potential.
“The launch of #SheMeansBusiness highlights our commitment to women entrepreneurs, and we look forward to what these women all over South Africa will one day achieve.
“We are looking forward to working with some exciting women-owned businesses in the months to come, with a view to helping them sharpen their skills so that they can unlock the full value of our platforms as tools to grow their businesses.”