By Margaretta wa Gacheru
In Summary
- Kenyan investor speaks for continent in influential international trade lobby in Islamic world.
Just back from London where she’d been attending
the World Islamic Economic Forum, what she calls “the Davos of the
Islamic World”, Evelyn Mungai was there as a member of WIEF’s
International Advisory Panel.
The only African on the panel and just the second
woman to be invited to join nearly three years ago, Ms Mungai was first
invited to speak to the WIEF the year before on the topic of Women in
the Global Economy.
“It was after that when I was called to come join
the board (or panel), which meets twice every year,” said Ms Mungai who
is a Christian. But even so, her views were valued.
“As we all speak the language of business, we find
what matters are not religion, race or even gender. These differences
evaporate when we realise we share the same goal — to do business that
makes profits. That’s why I loved the theme of our recent meeting on
‘Building bridges through business,” she said, adding that the official
title of last week’s London forum was also timely: Changing World, New
Relationships.
Attended by at least a dozen heads of State,
including British premier David Cameron, President Hamid Karzai of
Afghanistan and King Husain of Jordan, Ms Mungai does not know exactly
why she was called.
However, prior to her appointment to the WIEF
board, she was the first woman to join the African Business Roundtable
and after that became the first elected president of the All Africa
Businesswomen’s Association.
But frankly, she first got involved in economic
empowerment for women after joining the Nairobi Business and
Professional Women Association and became its second African Chairperson
in 1977.
“But I feel I don’t represent women at WIEF so
much as I represent Africa since I am the only African on the advisory
panel,” said Ms Mungai who appreciates the forum’s main focus which is
on investment opportunities.
“I’ve been speaking out on the immense investment
possibilities available in Africa for quite some time. And I’ve been
inviting investors to come visit the region to see the opportunities for
themselves.”
One reason Mungai might have been invited to join
this prestigious investment forum, apart from her work with a number of
international business-oriented organisations, (including Rotary
International, having served as the first woman chairperson of a Nairobi
Rotary Club), is because she owns her own investment firm.
“Speedway Investments Ltd. Kenya is the holding
company through which I conduct my property development,” said Ms Mungai
who is best known for the school she started in the late 1970s, Evelyn
College of Design.
“We were the first college of design in Kenya, and
we’re proud to have created a new profession that was non-existent here
before we started,” she said, adding that her school is busy producing
top Kenyan fashion designers.
“We now have our own Yves St. Laurents right here,
our own Guccis, Christian Diors and Chanels,” she said, shamelessly
admitting she initially announced the school was open for students to
apply even before she had a single member of faculty.
“There were no Kenyan designers at the time, but I
took a leap of faith, and once I put that notice in the paper, I got
many calls from professionally-trained designers who were in Kenya as
housewives, but who wanted to teach in my school,” she said, noting her
first batch of design instructors were all expatriates who came from
Britain, New Zealand, Poland and Ghana.
Today, Ms Mungai could boast of hosting students
from all over Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi,
Sudan, DRC, Ethiopia and South Africa as well Kenya.
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