Covid 19- Women Enterprises Leveraging on Technology

Small and medium enterprises are some of the greatly affected due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and as a result many have been trapped and unable to sustain themselves despite the government introducing a series of stimulus measures, including reducing value-added tax and corporation tax. The pandemic is also deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic. The lock down and social distancing has so far posed economic challenges to women’s work and their business activities and exposed them to economical threats. World bank survey showed that women led business in Kenya have a bigger investment impact, supporting huge portions of household budgets and thereby confirming need for financing their enterprises . However, the pandemic has either brought most of them to a grinding halt or are immensely struggling. Felicia Muriuki, proprietor of ShereCare Life honey has had to figure out how to reach her customers during this lock down period which has greatly disrupted movement. “We serve a wide range of customers who are scattered all over. Our hives are located in Loita Hills North East of Masai Mara National Reserve and with the current lockdown; our logistics have really been hampered and this has completely affected our supply chain.” DadaSphere Events was forced to postpone their much hipped festival slated for 1st and 2nd of May due to the Ministry of Health’s directive, banning events to mitigate spread of the corona virus in the country. “We had paid for everything and the cancellation meant that we incur loses. We have now been forced to cut down on our team’s working hours which has in turn affected production and salaries,” says Valentine Njoroge, founder at Dadasphere Events. Veronica Nyabuto, owner and creator of retail brand Verushka Wigs says in the first week of the announcement of the pandemic, their sales dropped to up to 60 percent with most of walk in customers keeping away due the stay at home and social distancing directives issued by the government. The above shows that in the context of Covid-19 crisis, the gender gaps leave women more vulnerable and the women’s lesser status in the labour market leaves them more exposed to job losses. During a webinar organized by Zuhura Africa to offer tips to women entrepreneurs on how they can survive the pandemic that has crippled businesses across the country; dubbed women entrepreneurs embracing the disruption, Africa Development Bank's acting director general Ms Nnena Nwabufo said research shows that one in every four women in Kenya engage in early entrepreneurship Nwabufo however admitted that most women in medium sized enterprises are at the centre of the current crisis and are likely to be hard hit by supply chain disruptions and will be severely impacted by the longer term economic downturn. She added that most women lack digital facilities and capabilities to allow their workers to do distant work and this places them at a disadvantage in the current context. She also disclosed that despite women running 60.7 per cent of unlicensed (mainly micro) and 31.4 per cent of licensed Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, that the strong patriarchal structures have encouraged men to dominate women have denied them opportunities at the negotiating table for favourable working conditions and regulations. She called on women to make umbrella bodies that will advocate for influential positions at negotiating tables and bargain for more power in influencing policy making. Nwabufo also stressed on the importance of women setting up communication networks to share information on opportunities arising in the market, access to finances, capacity building trainings and other free online causes. Amandla Ooko-Ombaka, McKinsey, Senior Engagement Manager said women’s income on overage was lesser than that of men and their poverty levels higher yet they held greater caring responsibility. She added that the effects may be disastrous leading to such as increased cases of domestic violence, early pregnancies and marriages, and poverty among others. She encouraged women to build their skills capacities especially in technology as digital tech is being leveraged in all sectors and calling on innovators to take up the challenge to birth the next frontier of technology development. “Since the onset of the pandemic, everyone is moving with speed to find alternative ways of mitigating the effects on business as well as providing solutions for working environments. The pandemic offers an opportunity to invest in technology and create new business opportunities, skills trading. It has proved that local solutions to such a global challenge are critical to the country’s efforts to mitigate and flatten the curve. Felicia and other women in business have since invested in technology and are now reaching their customers through online means. “The online presence has harnessed our customer engagement to another level and we have to keep up-scaling every time to meet our customers’ needs. She adds. Valentine Njoroge now creates online shows on instagram and the response has been good. “I stopped looking at the effects in a negative aspect and had to create opportunities out of it using the disruptive technology. Luckily we have had an online presence on social media. During the launch of Kenya National Action Plan II in mid-May, Public Service and Gender Cabinet Secretary Prof Margaret said 60 per cent of women working in the informal sector had lost their jobs due to the pandemic but challenged them to be innovative and take advantage of the online opportunities the pandemic has brought about.