NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, August 13, 2015

South Africa paid tribute to women across the country on National Woman’s Day, which was held on 9 August 2015.

Besides a general tribute to women in South Africa, National Woman’s Day is also a public holiday in South Africa; however, as Women’s Day fell on Sunday the 9th, the public holiday was moved over to the 10th of August 2015.

On 9 August 1956, more than 20 000^[South African women of all races staged a march on the Union Buildings in protest against the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950, commonly referred to as the “pass laws”. The march was led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams.

To celebrate, IT News Africa has listed Africa’s Leading Women in Tech for 2015:

Yasmin Belo-Osagie and Afua Osei

Yasmin Belo-Osagie and Afua Osei are the co-founders of She Leads Africa. the platform is aimed at providing female entrepreneurs across the African continent with financing, knowledge and networking opportunities to build their businesses.

According to Forbes, both Yasmin and Afua were ranked as two of the most powerful women in Africa in 2014. To date, both Yasmin and Afua have recruited nearly 1,000 women-led start-ups into their network with an overall goal of turning them into pan-African industry leaders. For 2015, Yasmin and Afua aim to engage and empower 10 000 female entrepreneurs.

According to Yasmin and Afua: “Entrepreneurship will be the broad based driver of economic growth for Africa with the potential to create jobs for the more than 200 million young Africans between ages 15 and 24.”