|2nd in Category Winner|
When you think “stokvel”, you probably don’t think of a R2 million investment kitty.
Nthabeleng Likotsi did, which is why she has led the charge to bring this old co-operative financial system into the South African commercial banking industry.
In 2009, Likotsi founded the Young Women in Business Network Holdings (YWBN), a broad-based investment company owned, controlled and managed by women. Seven years later, YWBN has 271 members and R2 million capital – a solid grounding for building a financial empire.
With a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship from Wits, Likotsi is making inroads into our country’s traditional financial sector. Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, Likotsi inherited the drive to innovate and drive change, wherever the opportunity presents itself.
She sees the rise of the Black Economic Empowerment system as a stepping stone, not only for black people, but for women. “The opportunities for young black women to stop talking and start acting have never been more readily available.”
In 2013, she won the ‘Women Leadership Award’ at the 3rd Africa – India Partnership Summit in Mauritius. At 32, she is one of the youngest female independent executive directors at several JSE listed companies.
Likotsi is clearly a woman on a mission to drive transformation.
|I live by the words: God will never give me what I can’t handle.|
