SME CEOs Group

About the Women-Owned Businesses Empowerment Series – KwaZulu-Natal Edition

The Women-Owned Businesses Empowerment Series is a bold and transformative four-part monthly initiative designed to accelerate the participation, growth, and long-term sustainability of women-led enterprises across KwaZulu-Natal.

Spanning key regional economic zones, the series amplifies the voice and visibility of women entrepreneurs while fostering inclusive participation across urban, township, and rural communities. It creates a dynamic platform where innovation meets opportunity — equipping women with the skills, digital readiness, networks, and market access tools needed to scale and compete within South Africa’s fast-evolving economic landscape.

Anchored in South Africa’s national development priorities, the District Development Model (DDM), and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the series focuses on high-impact sectors that are critical to the province’s economic transformation — including retail and creative industries, agro-processing, ocean economy and tourism, and digital innovation.

Through strategic collaboration with the public and private sectors, the initiative aims to advance gender equity, inclusive economic growth, and enterprise competitiveness. It serves as a catalyst for investment, mentorship, capacity building, and policy engagement, empowering women-owned enterprises to transition from informal to formal, local to global, and start-up to sustainable.

Key Objectives

1. Drive Inclusive Economic Growth

Empower women entrepreneurs across KwaZulu-Natal to actively participate in local, regional, and national economies by strengthening their capacity, competitiveness, and market visibility in high-growth sectors.

2. Enhance Market Access, Digital Inclusion & Financial Readiness

Facilitate access to markets, digital tools, funding instruments, and value chain participation to drive scalability, innovation, and business resilience.

3. Foster Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)

Mobilize collaboration between corporates, government, development agencies, and civil society to co-create gender-responsive support mechanisms for women in business.

4. Align with National and Global Development Priorities

Ensure full alignment with the South African Government’s industrial priority sectors, the District Development Model (DDM), and UN SDGs (Goals 5, 8, and 9) — advancing gender equality, decent work, and innovation-led growth.

5. Establish a Mentorship and Monitoring Framework

Implement a post-event Women in Business Mentorship and Monitoring Program to ensure continuity, sustainability, and measurable impact through mentorship, peer-learning, and enterprise growth tracking.