By Vusi Vokwana
Vusi Vokwana is dedicated to driving economic growth in the kasi (township). She actively works to combat the historical financial exclusion of disadvantaged individuals, addressing challenges posed by biased algorithms within the financial industry and financial gaslighting, which hinders township entrepreneurs.
Vusi says: “Women-led MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] in decentralised economies need easily accessible funding. That funding needs to allow them to finance their operations without giving up any percentage of their ownership.
“Funding also needs to help counteract spatial planning legacies (infrastructure inequity) – people need to be able to access markets without abandoning their existing markets. Entrepreneur support organisations can help take the centralised economy demands they have been forced to endure and re-purpose them for decentralised economies in real life.”
Vusi’s under-reported topic that needs attention is:
South Africa needs to look at decentralised economies for policy making instead of only focusing on centralised economic frameworks.
Decentralised economic best practices and financially supporting people to succeed on their terms can inspire better policy making than current plans, for example, the draft transformation fund concept document, submitted by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, which continues to prioritise centralised economic frameworks, models and solutions for decentralised economies.
