African Women Among Entrepreneurs Honored in New York

Good ideas bring commercial success in security, health — and furniture

By Charles W. Corey
Staff Writer

Washington — Women entrepreneurs can face the same problem worldwide: the difficulty of starting and expanding a business in a male-dominated business environment that often is not receptive to their efforts.

One woman who has flourished despite such challenges is South African Cheyyann Bodington, who started TESA Palisade Fencing and Security Systems.

Bodington recently was honored in New York, along with 11 other international women entrepreneurs, as a winner of the second annual International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC).

Summing up her experience, Bodington said: “I was told my first few months in business that I would never make it. It’s been a tough ride.” She did make it, though, finally earning the respect of her male-dominated industry group after persevering for many years.

Bodington’s small fencing company initially employed four people and had a first-month turnover of $4,000. TESA Fencing now has 50 full-time employees and 20 contractors, and sustains four small black-owned businesses through its orders and cash flow.

TESA deals with large construction companies as well as cell phone companies for local and export orders. TESA manufactures not only steel palisade fencing, but also stainless steel and balustrades for high-rise buildings and shopping centers.

Two other African women were honored along with Bodington: Ibukun Awosika, chief executive officer of The Chair Centre Group of Lagos, Nigeria, and Winifred Mwendia (Winnie Gitau), founder and president of Pure Health Products of Kenya.

Awosika is a graduate of the Chief Executive Program of Lagos Business School, as well as of the Global Executive MBA Program of Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa Business School, in Barcelona, Spain. She heads a multimillion-dollar business.

Confronted with poor facilities and declining social infrastructures, Awosika started designing furniture components and arranged for companies abroad to produce the designs, which she then brought into Nigeria in large volumes for assembly.

Awosika stamped her own mark of ingenuity on the industry by tasking her team to create from a few imported components a variety of finished office furniture designs. In addition, she introduced ergonomic chairs as well as bank security doors into the Nigerian market. This led to an astronomical increase in her market share and helped to maintain her leadership in the industry.

To promote export of her wares, Awosika has taken The Chair Centre beyond the shores of Nigeria to set up an operational base in Accra, Ghana. Awosika also has been servicing other West African markets such as Mali and Niger, and her company soon will open two new stores elsewhere in Africa to increase its presence in the African market.

She has big plans, not only for her own company, but for the entire African furniture industry: She is considering setting up a “furniture village,” in cooperation with one of the state governments in Nigeria, to serve as a hub for all furniture businesses in Nigeria — small, medium and large. She hopes eventually to break into European and American markets.

The third African entrepreneur — Winifred Mwendia (Winnie Gitau) — started Pure Health Products in Kenya. She is a lawyer by training, but her passion for healthy living prompted her to build a company that produces, packages and sells health products such as herbal teas, brown rice and honey.

Established in 2003, Pure Health today is a corporate social responsibility organization that hires residents of slums. The company has a children’s corner with free child care for its 73 employees, offers free education on healthy nutrition, gives 10 percent of company profits to its employees and ensures that its products are grown in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge awards are a joint project by the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona in association with the Indian Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce of New York.

The project hopes to promote a global dialogue on women’s entrepreneurship so that women entrepreneurs can exchange experiences, forge partnerships among enterprises and potential customers worldwide and build personal contacts and networks among women’s business associations and individual entrepreneurs.

This year, IWEC honored three women business owners/awardees from Africa, three from Barcelona, Spain, and three from New York.

The list of 2008 winners follows:

• Ibukun Awosika, chief executive, The Chair Centre Group, Lagos, Nigeria

• Nuria Basi, president, Armand Basi, Spain

• Cheyyann Bodington (Anni), managing director, TESA Palisade Fencing and Security Systems (PTY) Ltd., South Africa

• Donna Childs, founder and chief executive, Childs Capital, United States

• Deepika Jindal, Austenitic Creations Pvt. Ltd., India

• Leni Schwendinger, founder, Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Ltd., United States

• Nalini Sharma, chief executive, Nalini Sarees, India

• Vidhi Singhania, proprietor, M/S VIDHI, India

• Nani Marquina, founder, Nanimarquina, Spain

• Sneh Mehtani, owner, Mehtani Restaurant Group, United States

•Winifred Mwendia (Winnie Gitau), founder and president, Pure Health Products, Kenya

• Maria del Pino Velazquez, general manager, Unísono Soluciones de Negocio, Spain