It is imperative for big business to drive diversity in their organisations, speakers in a plenary session emphasised during DLO Energy Resources Group’s African Women in Leadership Summit, held on August 6, in Johannesburg.

Speakers stressed that this should be done intentionally and pointed to the need to bolster women and youth participation.

They highlighted that research had shown that diversity in business engendered better outcomes, with a myriad of viewpoints leading to improved decision-making and problem-solving.

Moreover, it is important that business and leadership are reflective of customers, as this contributes to a better understanding of customers’ needs and requirements and how to meet them.

Speakers also underlined the importance of proper mentorship and career guidance for women, with the need to undertake this at an early stage in their career, given that they often have different responsibilities and pressures at home that they need to balance with work and take into consideration when making decisions.

Also put forward was the need for women who reach leadership positions to continue to drive empowerment, to ensure that more opportunities for diversity are created, especially in sectors and businesses that are not as transformed.

In a separate session, attendees outlined the challenges that women-led businesses face when seeking to access funding through the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), such as onerous processes and delays in receiving money.

The NEF aims to grow black economic participation in the country, through financial and non-financial assistance.

While the fund was said to have enjoyed some successes in supporting women-led businesses, it was acknowledged that there were facets that were not working and that required attention.

Also, it was mentioned that the fund was not receiving the desired level of support from government to enable it to support as many businesses as it would like.

Meanwhile, providing a post-election economic outlook, Fitch Solutions BMI Global Operational Risk Research head Chiedza Madzima pointed out that the country faced a challenging path ahead in a globally tough environment.

While investors are looking to boost supply chain resilience and future-proof their capital, there was strong competition from other markets in Africa and further abroad to secure this, she pointed out.

Madzima emphasised that, regardless of who was in government, both local and international investors wanted to see a reinforcement of institutional capacity, a reduction in red tape, the continued protection of intellectual property rights, an improvement in addressing corruption efforts and a faster pace of investing in and rehabilitating critical infrastructure, with this all geared toward making South Africa competitive again.