African Market Woman – Mama Benz
The colorful markets of West Africa are often dominated by strong women. They control prices, carry the highest sales records in the market, control distribution, provide loans, work in some cases as a bank, they impact financial security to the community level and determine who can buy their goods. These women rule the market and are treated with deference. Thanks to their business acumen, they have amassed a great deal of wealth. These women are affectionately referred to as Mama Benz. The additional impact market women businesses have, is they also directly hire women to work for them. This enriches the strong bond that control aspects of the African Market Culture for successful businesses.
The other market women look up to the Mama Benz Women, to this end, perhaps one day they too will attain such success and become a Mama Benz or a Cash Madame. The name Mama Benz or Cash Madame means financially successful powerful woman impacting her fellow women while serving her community and contributing to many livelihoods.
In African countries, women are actively engaged in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing (clothing and textiles) and services. Opportunities from trade have brought more household resources under women’s control, which in turn has a positive effect on overall investment in the health and education of future generations. But women are also heavily employed in several sectors that continue to undergo adjustment and change due to trade liberalization, such as agriculture and textiles. More work is needed to understand whether there are differences in how women fare in trade adjustment.
It is estimated that 70 per cent of informal cross-border trade in Africa is conducted by women traders. Being well positioned, women are the untapped resource to be an economic growth accelerator of Africa’s economy especially under the Women and Youth in Trade Protocol.
Intra-African trade is currently estimated to contribute an income for about 43 per cent of the continent’s entire population but intra-African trade accounts for just over 10 per cent of total continental trade. Regional trade in East Africa alone accounted for only 8.3 per cent of total trade in 2017, less than the continental average, and unchanged over the past five years, according to report by the African Development Bank. UN Women works with regional bodies on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and AfCFTA Secretariat to address challenges that (young) women face when trading and to position them more strongly in the future of intra African trade.
We at CMF Ventures USA-Ghana embark upon a mission in supporting women farmers and thrive to collaborate with women globally to make a change for Women, Planet and People.
Related Posts
