Category: Business

BY SIFISO NHLABATSI MBABANE– The Eswatini Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) is demonstrating how access to finance can turn youthful ambition into growing businesses. This has been witnessed through a young graduate who could not find a job and turned to poultry farming, to an entrepreneur whose E19 000 loan has helped build a business […]

BY NELIWE NGUBANE MBABANE- A small room in Nhlangano, Ngwabi has become the unlikely starting point of a big dream — putting locally made shoes on the feet of Emaswati and eventually taking “Made in Eswatini” footwear beyond the country’s borders. For Samkelo Lokotfwako, founder of LOKZA, shoe-making is more than a business. It is […]

BY NELIWE NGUBANE MBABANE-What began as a simple idea to fill a gap in Eswatini’s fashion market is steadily becoming a vision for a globally recognised African leather brand. Founder and creator of Melane Leather, Dumsile Motsa, shared her journey from making her first simple leather bag to building a brand rooted in Swazi identity, […]

…Nomathemba Xaba urges fashion designers to turn creativity into commercially viable brands BY NELIWE NGUBANE EZULWINI— A beautiful garment may stop people in their tracks, but according to attorney Nomathemba Xaba, stopping them is only the beginning. For a designer, the real victory comes when that attention becomes interest, interest becomes a purchase and a […]

BY NELIWE NGUBANE EZULWINI— Fashion may begin with a sketch, but turning that creativity into a profitable business requires something more, intellectual property (IP), according to Business of Fashion Ambassador Cebsile Magagula. Magagula was speaking today at The Royal Villas during the IP RUNWAY: THE BUSINESS OF FASHION, FURNITURE & ART, where she unpacked how […]

…creativity as an economic asset …IP turns ideas into businesses …eswatini brands urged to go global … “made in eswatini” as a global brand BY NELIWE NGUBANE EZULWINI — The runway may have been set in Ezulwini, but the ambition for Eswatini’s fashion, furniture and creative industries must extend far beyond the country’s borders, according […]

…africa’s E1.1 trillion fashion market …creatives urged to own their brands …IP turns creativity into global capital …protecting fashion beyond borders BY NELIWE NGUBANE EZULWINI— Africa’s fashion industry is generating billions in consumer spending, yet the continent continues to lose out on the ownership and economic value of the brands shaping the global fashion landscape. […]

BY GCWALISILE MHLABANE MANZINI– Eswatini is set to welcome its first people’s story project, The Making of Avela, a powerful new book by Avela Ndabeni that celebrates resilience, purpose, faith and the belief that a person’s beginning does not have to define their ending. Authored by Ndabeni and published by Priscilla & Tom Publishing, the […]