Support women for success in enterprise

In the past few weeks, our market place of ideas has been inundated with discourses on women’s suffering because the social structures are tilted in favour of men.

Of course, it is an open secret that the exploitation of women has ramifications on the economy and social dynamics.

Yet our economy, especially in the rural areas, cries out for a revolution.

The magic could be in a group so critical, yet so ignored - women.

FEMALE FARMERS

Yet women are still struggling in abject poverty and exploitation.

Interestingly, this is the constituency that largely toils to sustain plantations and families, keep children in school, and even vote. They need an opportunity to get into mainstream commerce.

Women make up over half of the primary producers in Kenya, and are, therefore, generators of wealth, yet they have less access to capital, decision-making, and an opportunity to learn and earn like men.

Additionally, only few women are at the business end of value chains.

As a result, female farmers are at the mercy of middlemen and have much less control over their incomes.

UNLOCK POTENTIAL

The Kenyan woman toils for what looks like a thankless society.

Entry into business is an uphill task. The small business is ever wobbly, highly informal and likely to underperform and even has a high risk of failure.

This is due to cultural barriers, capacity inadequacies, mainly knowledge, financial and leadership skill and inability to operate in the middlemen-dominated market.

We need to unclog these blockades to unlock the full potential of women so that they can rise from small-scale subsistence businesses to medium ones.

There are many women who are involved in the production of honey and milk, in making beadwork, horticulture, and weaving, and whose sweat goes into the pockets of swindlers.

GENDER RULE
We need to design workable, robust models that will haul and integrate the womenfolk into mainstream enterprises.

Women need to gain rigorous insights in value-addition, customer care, cooperatives, negotiation, marketing, bookkeeping, branding and export.

Ms Christine Lagarde, the CEO of International Monetary Fund (IMF), noted recently: “We know — based on a wealth of research and experience — that empowering women can be an economic game changer for any country.”

Kenya may have been paying heed to Ms Lagarde, with packages such as Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) and the two-third gender rule.

But the reality is that the laws seem to favour the elite woman.

One would have expected women reps in Parliament to be demanding policies and legislation to empower fellow women.

WOMEN LEADERS

The silence is loud, too, on the accountability and performance of the AGPO and the Women Enterprise Fund.

Instead, the law seems to have created opportunities for the elite. There is no doubt that empowered women will be more productive.

County governments need to tailor loans to the special needs of women, encourage value addition, provide secure and ample market areas and tame exploitative brokers.

Gender mainstreaming is misplaced when we dish out freebies to undeserving cohorts or create opportunities for the elite to steal the rights of peasants.

This is not only shameful; it is immoral.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Today, most of the beneficiaries of affirmative policies are women who were thriving or would have thrived anyway.

They behave like men, and cannot boost the fortunes of millions trapped in the rut of poverty.

The woman who holds the trump card for our society is not in high heels, but right at the bottom of the pyramid.

However, that is where the fortune is. And as the 2015 McKinsey Global Institute report noted: “If women — who account for half the world’s working-age population — do not achieve their full economic potential, the global economy will suffer.”

Mr Wamanji is a Public Relations and Communication expert.