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How Hiring Women In Africa Makes Sense To US Entrepreneur

How Hiring Women In Africa Makes Sense To US Entrepreneur

While living in Uganda after graduating from college, Liz Forkin Bohannon says she realized women there needed more opportunities, according to a FoxBusiness report.

After trying out several ideas to make money including a chicken farm, Bohannon remembered a pair of sandals she’d made in college.

She searched the country for textiles and learned everything she could about sandal making. In 2010, she hired three young women, started a business — Sseko Designs — and their footwear now sells in the U.S. for $50 to $70.

Based in the U.S. and Uganda, Sseko Designs is helping lift women out of poverty and equipping them with artisanal and textile skills and funds for higher education, FoxBusiness reports. After working for the company, 36 women in Uganda have gone on to college and the first class of three has graduated.

Seventy percent of women in Uganda live below the poverty line, Bohannon said. Just 17 percent attend high school and less than 2 percent go to college. Ugandans traditionally seek ways to earn enough money for college during a nine-month period between high school and college, but it’s often hard to find jobs, according to the report.

Inspiration for the company’s name comes from enseko, the Luganda word for “laughter.” The Sseko brand has expanded from sandals to handbags, totes, scarves and jewelry. The company hires recent high school graduates in Uganda to live and work together making products for nine months, while earning money that goes towards college.

Sseko Designs recently won the Social Impact category of the 2013 SXSW Eco Startup
Showcase. The long-term goal, Bohannon said, is to have the company managed entirely by its Ugandan employees. Bohannon also wants to take Sseko business model into new
countries.

Photo: http://www.sheknows.com
Photo: http://www.sheknows.com

“There is so much need and opportunity to provide employment to vulnerable groups of women and the impact is undeniable,” Bohannon said. “As we continue to grow our brand and distribution, our potential for impact in each community becomes greater and that is very exciting to us.”

Fortune 500 companies with the highest number of females in management enjoy a 34-percent higher return than those with the lowest number, according to UN Women, an entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. If women’s wages were raised to the same level as men’s, the U.S. gross domestic product would be an estimated 9 percent higher, said Nanette Braun, communications and advocacy chief at UN Women, FoxBusiness reports.

Women earned about 81 percent of the median wages of male workers in 2012,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the same year, a U.S. Department of
Labor report showed that women’s participation in the labor force accounted for 57.7 percent of the working age population, compared to a 70.2-percent participation rate for men.

One of the biggest challenges Sseko encountered is limited infrastructure for production
and logistics in East Africa. The company is trying to tackle these through training, by identifying partners on the ground and introducing new technology.

Bohannon said she hopes to contribute to business in East Africa.

“We have hopes of not just impacting our immediate community of women, but also being a
positive contributor to the regional economy and industry development,” she said.