Coca-Cola Vice President for East and Central Africa, Debra Mallowah has emphasized the critical contribution and participation of women in the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
She said this during a virtual Womens’ Empowerment Conference on AfCFTA organised by COMESA Business Council (CBC) in partnership with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).
The Coca-Cola Company is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories.
Speaking during the conference today, Mallowah hailed the new trade opportunities that the trading area will provide in tandem with economic sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and services where women can play.
“Women will need to be supported to exploit these opportunities in diverse ways, and importantly, they also must be intentional in leveraging opportunities that AfCTA provides,” said Mallowah.
“The one great thing that large companies like Coca-Cola can do is to influence the ecosystem of smaller companies around them and help them realize their dreams. Large companies can be the engine of the train that helps all the small companies move forward through sharing world class best practice, local sourcing of raw materials to the extent possible, and creating a market for their finished goods and services,” she added.
Furthermore, on digital financial inclusion for women, Mallowah urged all involved including women entrepreneurs themselves, to be intentional in transitioning small and medium scale enterprises to e-commerce.
“Women empowerment is something we take seriously at Coca-Cola. Our experience has shown us that access to markets and to finance are some of the major critical components defining women’s success in their business endeavours. This high-level conference, was educative, informative and inspirational to all aspiring and current businesswomen.”
Nevertheless, participants at the conference came up with proposals, measures and possible initiatives which were meant to improve compliance with market access requirements by SMEs
Other speakers who were at the virtual conference includes, the CEO CBC Peninah Ngategize, CEO, Kika Farms, Uganda; Sabine Mensah, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda; Emily Mburu, Director, Directorate of Trade in Services, Investment, IPR and Digital Trade, AfCFTA Secretariat; Temitope Iluyemi – Senior Director, Global Government Relations- Africa, Procter & Gamble; Maureen Sumbwe – CEO, Zambia Federation of Women in Business and Natalie Jabangwe – Group Digital Executive Officer, Sanlam among others.