The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE CEO Africa Roundtable will be hosting this year’s Women’s business leadership roundtable (WBLR) 2021 virtually amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event is set for 6 August and will be aimed at building a strong women business leaders’ movement with critical skills and knowledge base in embracing the fourth industrial revolution. In an interview, CEO Africa Roundtable board member and Standard Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) director- general Dr Eve Christine Gadzikwa said the event has been put together to discuss issues affecting women businesses.
She said when the economy of a country is not doing well, normally the women suffer the most from economic challenges and their businesses become affected hence the need to have the roundtable meeting so as to identify possible solutions to this anomaly.
“This virtual event has been put together for women who are in leadership and provide a platform for women to come together to discuss important topics. It will be looking at the business areas for women in relation to entrepreneurship, how women can best attract funding because most of their companies have been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the moment a lot of companies have been negatively impacted due to the pandemic. Some of them actually need to mobilise funding for opening up new business opportunities. So, we have put together a great line up of speakers who will be speaking on different topics to assist these women,” said Dr Gadzikwa.
She said local panelists from the business community will also talk about different topics and how women can start putting together mechanism to allow the business community to find new opportunities and to become more resilient.
“Although women constitute 52 percent of the population, we believe that we are not really in the mainstream of business. This is what we are trying to encourage women business leaders to contribute to the economy and economic recovery be it in manufacturing, service, industries and exports as well,” said Dr Gadzikwa.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Dr Mavis Sibanda will be the keynote speaker.
Other speakers include Zimbabwe Stock Exchange chief executive officer Mr Justin Bgoni, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Deputy Governor, Dr Jesimen Chipika and Business Strategy Expert and Metal Fabricators of Zambia managing director, Ms Roseta Mwape.
