Ipeleng Mkhari couldn’t believe her luck when she secured a bank loan of R100,000 to kick start her CCTV business when she was in her twenties. She was female, black and had no entrepreneurial experience whatsoever. She thought she’d hit the jackpot. But there was a twist - she had to pay the money back in just 30 days. Two decades later Ipeleng is the CEO of Motseng Investment Holdings.

Monica Musonda walked away from a high-paying, in-house lawyer working for one of the continent’s wealthiest businessmen and walked straight into one of the most tumultuous but rewarding business ventures of her life.

Carol Abade was travelling across Africa solo, signing 2-million-dollar contracts and recruiting people to work for her when she was still in her 20s. Back then, she was responsible for the expansion into the rest of the continent of the experiential marketing company she worked for. Today she is the group CEO of the leading experiential agency in Africa – EXP Kenya.