Women Entrepreneurs

The purpose of this initiative is to assist with the development of a database, containing ICT SMMEs owned by black or women as well as to recommend Black and Women ICT SMME support programs, which will address skills and enterprise development within SMMEs.  It may be expected that such ICT SMME support programs will ultimately increase employment and competitiveness in South Africa through the provision of more employable ICT workers.

Out of the 9.5 million people who are currently working in Nepal, only 1.5 million (16 per cent) are paid employment.  Out of this number, 1.2 million are men and less than 400, 00 are women.  Eighty-two per cent of employed women are self-employed vs. 12 per cent of those who are wage-employed.  In some ethnic communities especially in the Newars and Tibeto-Burman highland groups such as the Sherpas, Gurungs or Thakalis, women entrepreneurs have traditionally been present, buy the idea of women in business has only recently spread throughout the whole country.  Women normally work more hours than men and rural women work more hours than women urban areas.

Independent enterprise is one of the most important vehicles for the empowerment of women in South Africa today. The Business Partners' vision is to enable more female entrepreneurs to take up meaningful roles in the business community. To this end, Business Partners has, as part of its strategy to increase its footprint in the women owned SME arena, made a strategic decision to create the Business Partners Women's Fund. By assisting women with capital, skill and knowledge, resulting in wealth and job creation for themselves and their teams and thus contributing to the growth of the economy, the Business Partners Women's Fund is at forefront of shifting the dynamics of the SME market to embody gender equality.