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Rising entrepreneurs off to global summit

Ally Angula (left), owner of the LeapHoldings group, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Daughton and Tammy Knott owner of Mbiri Natural Skin Care products, entertained the media this week to announce the two entrepreneurs’ upcoming visit to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi. (Photograph by Jenny Sitole)

Two rising stars from the local business scene are on their way to attend a global summit for entrepreneurs in Nairobi, presented by the United States Government.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) is a global platform that connects emerging entrepreneurs with leaders and prominent businessmen and women from all around the world. The United States Of America will for the first time be hosting the annual summit in an African Sub-Saharan country, Kenya. The U.S. Embassy in Windhoek is assisting two female entrepreneurs, Ally Angula and Tammy Knott, to attend the summit. Angula owns Leap Holding, a group of companies working in commercial farming and in clothing, while Knott is the owner of Mbiri Natural Skin Care products.
The U.S Ambassador, Thomas Daughton said, “I’m pleased to announce that Miss Angula and Miss Knott have distinguished themselves and have been selected to represent Namibia at a special session designed specifically for youth and women entrepreneurs”.
The summit will provide emerging young businesswomen like Angula and Knott with the opportunity to connect with investors , other businesses, service providers and non-profit organisations, to enhance their skills, create relationships and expand opportunities to grow their businesses.
Angula said, “As a young woman it is scary to find women who are active in commercial agriculture, and then run the risk of losing clients who take their business elsewhere. I want to learn as much from this summit as I can and I want to be able to build good businesses relationships that will enable me to bring them on board and expand my local Namibian brand to international markets”.
Knott expressed the same sentiments; “The GES summit is the perfect platform to network and for me to build my brand [using] the same formulas that have worked for global businesses that started off on a small scale like mine. I also want to learn how I can attract more Namibians to be able to trust natural products such as Mbiri as the Namibian clientele still trust only international brands such as Nivea, “ The two entrepreneurs agreed on the challenges their respective businesses are facing. They need training for their staff to enhance their skills to compete in an economy that is rapidly changing. They also need access to capital to expand, and they need to communicate their marketing messages clearly to a prospective clientele.
President Barack Obama will attend the GES summit. It was his speech in Cairo 2009 that emphasised the importance of entrepreneurship as a tool for economic development, and to build more robust entrepreneurial communities.

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