Ghana has been named among the top countries with the most women business owners in Africa in the 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE).

Ghana scored 37.2 percent on the index benchmark indicator which is calculated as a percentage of total business owners. Overall, Ghana currently ranks 48^th globally on the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs.

Botswana and Uganda scored 38.5 percent and 38.4 percent on the index benchmark indicator, occupying the first and second spots, respectively, in terms of percentage of total business owners.

“Women in Botswana, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Angola stand out as excellent examples of women’s determination to provide for themselves and their families, despite facing financial, regulatory and technical challenges. In these economies, women are able to leverage on opportunities in their respective environments to be business owners, leaders and professional or technical workers”.
Ebehijie Momoh, Country Manager and Area Business Head for West Africa at Mastercard

MasterCard stated that MIWE’s latest results showed that women in less wealthy economies such as Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Madagascar are making strong inroads in the business world – achieving rankings and progress that went beyond expectations. This is despite sociocultural barriers and infrastructural constraints such as lack of government SME support, poor access to entrepreneurial finances and severe lack of opportunities for education.

MIWE focuses on putting the spotlight on the significant socio-economic contribution of women entrepreneurs around the world, including in Africa, and provides insights on the factors driving and inhibiting their advancement.

Botswana, an example

Botswana is among the top 15 economies globally in terms of advancement outcomes for women, particularly as far as performance by income is concerned, out-performing high-income and developed economies such as Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Australia. Botswana also scored higher in MIWE 2021’s ‘women’s labor force participation rates, ranking 13th globally.

Encouragingly, although ‘women’s entrepreneurial activity rate’ declined in most economies, a number of African countries saw gains in this area, indicating a strong positive entrepreneurial response to the pandemic. Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, South Africa, and Botswana all performed well in ‘women’s entrepreneurial activity rate’ with Nigeria, Angola and Ghana ranking in the joint first place.

These rankings are despite the fact that in Nigeria and Angola ‘government SME support’ (ranked 62 and 53 respectively) and ‘general access to finance’ (ranked 61 and 63 respectively) are near the bottom of the rankings.

Ghana scored slightly better on these metrics, 44 for ‘government SME support’ and 37 for ‘access to finance’. Ghana was ranked 6th globally (69.7 percent) for ‘entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions.

Strengths of Nigeria and Angola

In both Nigeria and Angola, women’s entrepreneurial activity rate exceeded men’s, even though women tend to be marginalized in terms of opportunities. Both economies display a strong, optimistic culture where there are ‘perceived business opportunities’. These positive and healthy entrepreneurial attitudes boost women’s aspiration to become more financially independent.

According to the MIWE, Nigeria also ranked second globally for the number of ‘women professional and technical workers (59.1 percent) while Angola ranked second globally in hiring intentions with 16.4 percent of adults planning to employ six or more people in the next five years.

In addition, Angola ranked first globally in ‘female opportunity-driven entrepreneurship’ and sixth in ‘self-perceived business capabilities’.

In Malawi, a less wealthy economy, women continue to defy the odds and are making strong inroads in the business world despite socio-cultural barriers and infrastructural constraints such as a lack of government SME support, poor access to entrepreneurial finances, and severe lack of opportunities for education. The gender gaps in entrepreneurial activity rate in Malawi are amongst the narrowest on a global scale, according to Mastercard.

The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2021 provides insight on the progress of women in business around the globe. The MIWE index performance ranking draws on socioeconomic factors that nurture or hinder the ability of women to progress and thrive in the business world.