Rotondwa recognised for her entrepreneurial skills

Rotondwa Musitha, who runs a recycling company in the Vhembe District called Trash Converters, smiled from ear to ear after she was recognised and awarded for her sterling entrepreneurial skills.

Rotondwa scooped up fifth place in the Access Bank Plc’s Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton Africa Programme’s Best Womanpreneur category. Winners were announced via a virtual ceremony held in Lagos, Nigeria, on 7 December.

Access Bank Plc’s Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton Programme is committed to continuously providing financial and business skills to female entrepreneurs across the African continent.

“What an honour! We found ourselves in a virtual room of 99 other businesswomen after being selected out of 37 000 applications in 10 countries within the continent,” beamed Rotondwa, who was awarded a R19 000 cash prize and brand-new business website.

“Over and above that, we had an eight-week business administration course where we got to learn the fundamentals on how to make your business a success, and also the focus areas when starting up,” she said. “To pitch and make it to fifth place is such a great honour and the fact that we have Trash Converters recognised on an international platform displays our potential for growth.”

Access Bank South Africa’s acting CEO, Chrisanthi Michaelides, congratulated all the finalists and winners. She further expressed her delight and pride in being part of an organisation dedicated to ensuring female entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to not only participate in economic inclusivity on the continent, but also act as role models for the thousands of girls and young women who are inspired by the women who go before them.

“Access Bank is a strong believer in the empowerment of women, hence the Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton Programme to enable women to step into the right leadership roles and, more specifically, assist in accelerating their goals on the African continent,” said Michaelides.

Access Bank SA was included in Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton Africa Programme for the first time in 2021, with South African businesswomen competing against peers from Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra-Leone, Gambia, Kenya, Mozambique and the Congo.

“We hope to continue to participate in the annual event and focus on creating contenders of the same high calibre we saw in the Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton Africa this year,” Michaelides said.

Date:17 December 2021

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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