Poor visibility, inadequate business records and weak compliance systems are limiting the ability of women-owned mining enterprises in Africa to attract international buyers, investors and financing, industry stakeholders have said.
They have, therefore, been urged to embrace digital due diligence and ensure that reliable information about their businesses is readily accessible to prospective partners.
The call was made during a webinar organised under the Mansa Awareness Initiative, a collaboration between Women in Mining Africa and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
In her contribution, the executive director of Women in Mining Africa, Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, said having quality products and customers was no longer enough to compete in an increasingly interconnected global market.
She said investors, financial institutions, suppliers and international buyers now wanted to verify the ownership, legitimacy, operations, compliance and capacity of businesses before entering into transactions with them.
According to her, the inability of many African businesses, particularly small enterprises, to provide credible and verifiable information was shutting them out of potentially lucrative economic opportunities.
“Having a product is important. Having customers is important. But when the business person needs to come to an institution, an investor, a supplier or new buyers of your products, there are questions that are asked,” she said.
Asokoro-Ogaji identified visibility, credibility and compliance as key challenges confronting women-led enterprises in the mining industry.
According to a report first published in The Cabal, she said businesses must be able to demonstrate that they were legitimate, properly structured and trustworthy to prospective partners.
“When potential partners cannot find information about you from a verifiable sector player, it is a problem,” she said.
She also highlighted the growing importance of mineral traceability, particularly in the gold sector, as international markets increasingly demand information about the origin of minerals and compliance with environmental, social and governance standards.
According to her, women already play significant roles across the mining value chain, including extraction, mineral processing, trading, supply, services and cooperatives.
However, she said greater participation would not automatically translate into access to international markets unless women-owned enterprises were adequately prepared to meet global business requirements.
She said the Mansa platform could help address the challenge by providing Africa-focused information to support due diligence on businesses and improve their visibility among investors, financial institutions and potential buyers.
“Mansa is Africa’s due diligence data platform. Mansa provides Africa-focused information that can support due diligence on any African entity, including your enterprise,” she said.
Also speaking, the vice president for Administration, AfCFTA Young Entrepreneurs Federation, Prof. Frederick Ndalamani Nonde, said African women and young entrepreneurs must be deliberately positioned to take advantage of the opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Nonde said women were already active in mining, processing, trading, cooperatives and cross-border commerce, but needed stronger business profiles to expand beyond their local markets.
“For an enterprise to move beyond its local market, to be able to establish credible business relationships, participate in cross-border trade or position itself for appropriate financial opportunities, it increasingly needs visibility, credibility and transparency,” he said.
He said the AfCFTA, which brings together a market of about 1.4 billion people, offered enormous opportunities for African businesses but warned that enterprises must be adequately prepared to compete across borders.
Nonde described the Mansa Digital Initiative as an important tool for closing the information gap that often makes it difficult for investors, financial institutions and businesses to assess potential African partners.
Presenting the platform, Business Development Associate, Anglophone West Africa Region, Mansa Digital Business, Ngoma Nwankwo, said Mansa was developed to tackle the shortage of reliable and comparable information on African businesses.
She said the platform provides centralised due diligence information on businesses, including financial institutions, corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Nwankwo explained that information on African businesses was often fragmented and presented in different formats, making it difficult for potential investors and partners to assess enterprises across countries.
She said Mansa addresses the problem by providing structured information covering business registration, ownership, board and management details and other relevant corporate and financial data.
The platform also provides information on investment opportunities across African countries, she said.
Nwankwo said improved access to credible business information could encourage more African enterprises to source products, services and business partners within the continent.
She added that this would help deepen intra-African trade by making it easier for businesses to identify and engage credible partners in other African markets.
The webinar is part of a wider capacity-building programme targeting women in mining, young entrepreneurs and other enterprises across the upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the mining value chain.
The organisers said the programme would focus on customer due diligence, business credibility and preparing African enterprises to access finance, investment and regional and international markets.
