WiN Festival Speaker

Vusi Vokwana

Vusi Vokwana is an emerging markets specialist with a focus on building inclusive economies where resources are scarce. Her work is about being a catalyst for change and building new ecosystems and value chains in the township space hence her company is called Kasi Catalyst. She is an expert at community engagement and stakeholder management. She coaches and runs mentorship programmes for Enterprise Support Organisations (ESO). She is also a keynote speaker and does talks about entrepreneurship in the township in schools, churches, community halls and conferences. Her work is focused on building SMEs in the township space to grow and expand beyond the township.
In her work, she has supported big corporates to enter the township market and supported government to implement inclusive economy projects in the township and informal sector space which led to the establishment of the First Pick n Pay Market Store in the Western Cape, First Vida e Caffe eKasi and the First Black Fintech Fempreneur solution – Imbokodo Finance. As a market penetration strategist, she has also supported global companies entering the SA market like French company PayGas, which came to SA with the intention to open 2 sites but she helped them understand the township market and advised them on their roll-out strategy which ultimately intends to open 52 sites nationally.

Vokwana is a financial inclusion advocate who began her career as a banker at Investec Bank and a Structured Lending Specialist at Rand Merchant Bank. She has curated financial solutions for the underserved market. She provides regular enterprise finance solutions on radio with Vukani Community Radio, TUTFM and Kisima Radio. She has spent the last decade mapping impact funders and preparing kasipreneurs to access impact funds with ease. She has approached local development finance institutions such as SEFA and NEF with data insights on the Finance Consumer Experience (UX) to ease access to capital for entrepreneurs.

Vokwana has volunteered her time in local Business Chambers and Associations to assist communities to leverage their buying power, their community assets and their social capital to counter the legacies of spatial planning in marginalised communities. She is the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC) WC Provincial Secretary, Township Economy Commission of SA (TECSA) WC Chairperson, Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) WC Township Lead and Lagunya Business Association General Secretary. She sits on the SA Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP) WC Executive Committee, she is a senior mentor at Edukasi and through her weekly town hall meetings she is constantly providing support and strategic advisory to township and rural community stakeholders.