Two Nam women off to global summit

TWO Namibian women, Ally Angula and Tammy Nott, have been chosen by the American embassy to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit this year.

The summit, founded by president Barack Obama in 2009, will take place in July this year in the Kenyan capital,Nairobi.

According to Angula, she intends to use the summit as an opportunity to learn how to scale a business. “We’re going through our growth phase and I would like to learn how to scale our business and look at exporting.”

Angula grows potatoes and onions in Tsumeb and is also into the manufacture and sale of clothing.

The first-ever retail clothing brand for Namibia – My Republik – has a shop at the Grove Mall and competes against other South African brands.

Angula says one of the main challenges she faces is that “people don’t expect women to be in agriculture”. This has necessitated an education process, she says. “Yes, we can do it. We’re building the skills from the ground up.”

Nott wants to see a platform created for women entrepreneurs. According to her, the local market for the natural skin products which she sells is too small. “Moving people’s mindsets have also been quite a challenge.”Ambassador Thomas Daughton said the summit currently is in its sixth year. “For the first time, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be held in sub-Saharan Africa.”

This year will also mark the first time that Obama will participate in the summit outside the United States of America, he said.

According to him, the summit will focus on generating new investments for entrepreneurs with a particular focus on women and youth.