Entrepreneur and philanthropist Babalwa Ngonyama is a change-maker in South Africa’s financial arena in which she has been involved for over two decades. Since she started her financial services company, Sinayo Group, in 2016, she has created countless career opportunities for Black female leaders in South Africa’s financial services industry.
Here, Babalwa shares the story behind her inspiring career in finance. She describes her philanthropic work in the eponymous Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation and the African Women Chartered Accountants organisation. She also shares her experience and provides advice to women entrepreneurs who want to lead purpose-driven lives.
The Story Behind Babalwa Ngonyama’s Inspiring Finance Career
Entrepreneurship hooked Babalwa from an early age. As a child, she would sell fruit and vegetables in her local streets, telling herself, “I’m going to own my own business.” Babalwa’s grandmother noticed her love of entrepreneurship and enrolled her in a commercial school in South Africa.
“Ever since then, I continued on that line of commerce until I became a chartered accountant,” Babalwa says.
She decided to pursue a career in the financial services sector because there weren’t many women in the space. She wanted to bring “balance” to the industry. This was especially important in South Africa, where the economy “largely centres on financial services.”
Babalwa has made her mark on this industry through her firm Sinayo Group and her non-profit initiative the Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation.
Sinayo Group and the Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation
Sinayo Group is a boutique financial services firm with multiple investments in stockbroking, asset management, derivatives and securities lending. The stockbroking business specialises in equity sales and trading for institutional investors across South Africa.
With a comprehensive network and extensive experience in the public and private sectors, the company offers outstanding services to the financial services industry.
Sinayo Group’s vision is to touch South African by democratising investments and providing exceptional sector and company insights. These insights allow the company’s institutional clients better execute trades and for her portfolio companies to grow value.
In 2021, Babalwa launched the Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation. This Foundation enables individuals to flourish in careers that may otherwise be difficult to access. The result is an empowered, inspired, proactive network of young African leaders and business owners.
Babalwa started the Foundation driven by the belief that individuals from all backgrounds should have access to leadership opportunities. Her efforts have broadened entry to various financial opportunities that include accounting, stockbroking and asset management for numerous individuals who have faced barriers relating to their sex, gender, or ethnicity.
Project Funda
Her flagship social impact project – Project Funda – which in Nguni languages means to learn, was established in 2016 with the launch of the Sinayo Group. Her objective is to ensure that she lifts other historically disadvantaged individuals as she rises, and to bring along young women and men entrepreneurs.
Project Funda creates financial services and leadership career opportunities for Black people. The two-year programme accelerates individuals’ progress in the financial services industry by providing them with high-level training, invaluable mentorship, and exposure to industry leaders.
“Once we have given them the skills, we also give them the opportunity to network,” Babalwa says. “I bring CEOs and other professionals to engage with these young professionals for networking so that they build long-lasting relationships.”
With support from the Sinayo Group’s substantial professional network, Project Funda participants develop the expertise and confidence they need to apply for jobs and perform well in interviews.
“We’re developing tigers,” Babalwa says. Tigers can navigate life by themselves, and also know when to call on others for cooperation”
Project Funda is supported by several organisations. It provides graduates competitive skills and the ability to play a meaningful role in their organisations from the onset. It runs its programmes with these organisations’ employment criteria in mind. As a result, graduates develop the skills they need to thrive in companies across the financial services industry.
Since launching the programme at the end of 2016 with 20 students, Project Funda has now supported over 80 graduates. Although Covid-19 placed the programme on hold for a few years, the programme now continues to support 20 young people each year.
Project Funda’s Long-Term Goals
Moving forward, Babalwa plans to expand Project Funda to serve people outside the financial services industry. “I have since we launched Project Funda observed a dire need for the type of help, hand-holding and support that we provide,” she says.
The Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation is raising funds to enable Project Funda’s growth. Babalwa is bringing like-minded people and philanthropists together who contribute through donations and dedicating time in support of their passion for helping others develop.
“We want to grow Project Funda into a leadership academy,” she observes. In 2023, she started creating academy sessions that focus on building resilience with this goal in mind.
How Babalwa Ngonyama Empowers Black Female Accountants
Apart from the Sinayo Group and the Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation, she is also a co-founding president of the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) organisation. This organisation accelerates the development of Black women chartered accountants through coaching, mentoring, bursaries, and career opportunities.
Earlier in her life, Babalwa saw “the difficulties of becoming a woman chartered accountant and the challenges she had to navigate in a male-dominated world… I told myself, I need to make sure that I bring more women on-board,” she says.
“I made sure that we have bursaries for women who are coming on-board. We mentor them. We help them by giving them job opportunities. I have employed women. I have placed numerous women with various companies. I have personally trained and mentored women.”
“We sponsor their education so that they can go to school without having to worry about work. The challenge that you have in South Africa is that young girls have to work and feed their families. We close that gap by giving them money so that they can focus on their educational efforts.”
Contributing To Gender Diversity in the Financial Services Industry
Babalwa explains that Black woman-owned businesses in South Africa’s financial sector contribute to gender diversity in the country as they tend to pro-actively open doors for other Black women to grow their careers and businesses.
“When I became a chartered accountant, a lot of women told themselves that sure, if Babalwa can do it, I can as well,” she explains.
Now, she brings countless women together in a diverse business community. In this space, everyone recognises that the “corporate environment evolved to fully embrace women, entrepreneurship opportunities avail themselves to women, and we are comfortable here. We are, as women, walking the corporate passages together without any fear.”
Babalwa is highly influential figure through her Board membership experience in bellwether South African companies with cross-border and international operations that include Barloworld, Aspen Pharmaceuticals, Implats, Clover and Hollard Insurance.
As a board member, she has led special committees that handled cross-border negotiations in respect of partnership, acquisition and leveraged buyout transactions.
Babalwa Ngonyama’s Advice to Become a Purpose-Led Woman
A notable leader in South Africa’s financial services sector, Ngonyama always reflects on her ethos that “the biggest project I have in life is personal development.” She engages in good physical, mental, and emotional health practices to make sure she’s well-positioned to lead others with compassion and strength.
Focusing on emotional intelligence is integral to this self-development. Understanding and managing your emotions as a leader aids your ability to communicate, empathise, and manage conflict.
“As human beings, there are sensors that inform various feelings, and you can’t deny those feelings,” Babalwa says. “I do my best to direct them effectively so that I don’t act impulsively in emotion-prone situations. I use my intellectual capacity to drive and inform my emotions what’s right.”
Developing intellectual capacity is also important to Babalwa as a purpose-led woman.
“I’m well known for my competence,” she says. “As busy as I am, people know that what I’m involved with will be done and will be done well. I’ve grown the ability to eliminate things that don’t matter in my life. I’m a purpose-led woman, and I fine-tune my purpose all the time.”
Run, Carrying Your Ball
Babalwa uses the game of rugby as an analogy for living a purpose-led life. Rugby players, despite the contact nature of the sport, run carrying the ball. When adversaries attack, they focus on the mission at hand, continue to protect the ball and safely pass it other teammates who are well-placed to sustain the momentum of the game and hopefully secure a try.
“When people attack me, I’m very much aware it’s because of my purpose. It’s because of the ball that I’m carrying. I don’t focus on them. I move on. I do not allow people to stop me from what I seek to achieve.”
“Being a purpose-led is something that I would advise anybody to start with,” Babalwa emphasises. “I love my business. It’s my passion, and it’s something that I have put at the centre of my life.”
She encourages women to identify their passion in life to also find their purpose. From here, women leaders can focus all their resources on this purpose and drive the change that inspires others.
About Babalwa Ngonyama
Aside from founding Sinayo Group and the Babalwa Ngonyama Foundation and co-founding the AWCA organisation, Babalwa is a director of few companies from different fields.
A member of the Forbes and Choiseul 100 Africa, Babalwa is a pioneering name in South Africa’s business world. Making waves for women in this space, she has completed the Women in Leadership programme at Harvard University.
Not only does Babalwa represent South Africa on the B20 as one of the business leaders, but The Star has named her one of the 20 Top Women to Watch. Enterprise Magazine has highlighted her as one of its Top Businesswomen of the Year. She has also received a Black Business Quarterly (BBQ) Businesswoman Visionary Award.Read more about Babalwa Ngonyama.
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