Accra, Ghana//-As part of this year’s International Women’s Day, African Eye Report, a leading pan-African economic, finance, business, energy and ICT news website, has published the profiles of some of the distinguished women including Madam Winnie Ngumi.
Madam Winnie Ngumi, a Kenyan born top entrepreneur and the CEO of Space and Style Ltd, which is one of the fastest growing building and construction companies in East Africa, shared her life experience, education, profession, among others in an exclusive interview .
Read the Q and A below
Who is Madam Winnie Ngumi?
Winnie Ngumi is a tenacious Kenya woman entrepreneur. Winnie has over 18 years of successful business leadership and experience in the Building and Construction industry in Kenya.
She is a founder member of Space and Style Ltd; a Kenyan business that she has led since its inception. She has successfully pioneered building product trends in Kenya, specifically in the area of roofing products.
Her Company is best known for changing the face of roofs in Kenya through its leading brand Decra Roofing products as well as the locally engineered and manufactured Frametech light gauge Steel structures.
She has recently overseen the transformation of her company into a manufacturing concern that saw Space and Style Ltd launch its state-of-the-artfactory of Asili Roofing systems in Juja, Kiambu county.
She is an architect by profession, having graduated from JKUAT University, Juja. In order to further build her capacity in business leadership, she has undertaken Business Courses at Stanford University, SEED Program (EA Cohort 3) and at Strathmore Business School (OMP Program).
As a leading women business leader in manufacturing, Winnie is the chair of the Building, Mining and Construction Sector at Kenya Association of Manufacturers and an active member of several technical committees at the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
READ ALSO: Winnie Ngumi: The Doyen of Kenya’s Building and Construction Industry – African Eye Report
She has received several awards and recognition for her contribution to adoption of innovative building solutions in Kenya including a manufacturing award from Women in Manufacturing (KAM) and a leadership award from WIRE (Women in Real Estate) in 2019.
And what does she stand for?
Winnie believes in the value of professionalism, hard work and diligence. She is passionate about empowering women and youth through mentorship. As a champion of business transformation, she regularly participates in key business and mentor-ship engagements.
Further, she is passionate about the impact of good corporate governance in business and the society. She is the founding Chair of the Board of the Centre for Corporate Governance Alumni Network; an alumnus of the Center for Corporate Governance, an institution that has trained almost 15,000 members in corporate governance from across Africa.
Why did you become an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur was a personal choice despite having graduated as an architect. As a creative, it was my dream to create an indigenous business that would grow to become a leader in the building and construction sector in the region.
How and when did you develop your entrepreneurial traits?
Before fully becoming engaged in Space and Style Ltd, I dipped my fingers in several business ventures. As a young student, I started engaging in small architectural jobs as early as during my third year at the university.
I also worked part time at an architectural firm during my free days and over the weekends. Eventually, I started undertaking personal architectural projects, supervised by practicing architects and even participated in building works. These projects gradually increased in number and I soon ventured into interior design and construction projects.
How difficult was your entrepreneurial path?
As the founding managing director, I have led the company over the last eighteen years from humble beginnings with virtually no capital, no office and no staff apart from myself into a thriving brand with over a hundred employees and six branches countrywide. The business did not take to the skies immediately and has grown gradually over time.
Using my architectural background, a network of friends and built environment consultants, I focused on positioning the company as the leading innovative roofing solution provider in the country.
The boom in the construction industry between 2007 and 2013 was God-sent for the nascent company that was battling it out with the well-established local manufacturers and we experienced exponential growth during this time.
To curve out a niche for myself and the business I focused on nurturing strong relationships with contractors, fund is, technicians and developers who became our brand ambassadors as they highly recommended or purchased our products.
As the business grew, demands on working capital became increased and I chose to grow our capital base by re-investing the business profits and seeking trade credit from our suppliers.
Entrepreneurship has been very demanding and challenging and has taken a lot of time, focus, sacrifice and discipline to make it. It has been particularly challenging as a woman entrepreneur.
I have faced a lot of prejudice and have had to work extra hard to ensure that the business gains respect in a male dominated industry. Above all, I have had to become very resilient in the face of challenges, both from within the business and from outside the business in order to survive and thrive.
How challenging was your growing up?
I cannot say that my childhood was particularly challenging. My parents were academicians and believed in the value of good education for all their children.
I grew up in Nakuru town, where I received a good education at a local public school, Moi primary school. As I was very strong academically, I transitioned into a top national school, Loreto High School, Limuru where I picked up great personal values from the then strict Catholic boarding School.
Later, I had the opportunity, through a scholarship to study accounts at the then Strathmore College and finally joined JKUAT University.
In addition to this my parents inculcated in us the value of honest hard work, discipline and focus. They were very committed Christians and through them I picked up the importance of integrity and ethics. These values, I uphold to this day and have really been instrumental in molding me into the person that I am.
And how did you turn it into good one?
It was a fairly good one.
What legacy do you want to leave behind as an entrepreneur?
My vision is to build an impactful Kenyan brand that transforms into a leading corporate with a reach across the African continent.
In order to achieve this vision, I have been taking strategic and systematic steps to develop Space and Style Ltd into a sustainable business through investment in structure, a good corporate culture and governance.
What is your advice to the young African entrepreneurs?
They have to start small and utilize the resources that they have within their reach. Growing a business takes time and sacrifice. They have to put in the hours.
Time will afford them the chance to grow, make mistakes, learn and improve as they go along. They should stay away from ‘get rich quick’ schemes and instead choose one line of business in a field that they possess some competence and focus on developing it. They should be innovative; even choosing to going against the grain in order to curve a niche and explore new opportunities.
What are you doing differently to thrive in a male dominated industry?
I have chosen to be professional in what I do. I did not choose to position the business as a woman led business; rather I focused on growing a business that can compete effectively in the technical building and manufacturing space through merit.
I do not let setbacks hold me back, even when I am aware that the setbacks are the direct consequence of gender biases. Instead I find the opportunities within the challenges and grow new relationships every day.
How old is your business?
Space and Style ltd has been in existence over the last nineteen years in Kenya.
And what is your vision for the company in the three years?
I wish to see Space and Style grow to increase its geographical footprint and venture into the East African region. In addition, I would like the business to create a big impact on its new community at Juja through more job creation as we continue to expand our manufacturing and distribution business lines.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Self-belief is very important in order to survive our challenging business environment. Simply put, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’.
African Eye Report
