Introduction

The rapid evolution and ascendance of social media in recent years have fundamentally transformed economic development by offering entrepreneurs novel avenues for marketing products and services. This article will examine how women leverage social media to create, share, and disseminate knowledge about entrepreneurship and to enhance digital economies, thereby tackling the urgent issue of gender inequality in economic development and fostering decent work and economic growth.

According to the United Nations Trade Report of 2025 and Layane Alhorr’s Essays in Development Economics: Evidence on Entrepreneurship, Digitization, and Gender (2024), women are leading in the economy. They possess a capacity to contribute $12 trillion (USD) to the global GDP whereas, women constitute 47% of business proprietors in Latin America and the Caribbean, 44% in East Asia and the Pacific, and 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank report states that in Namibia, more males than females have registered enterprises. This divide is a challenge to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, according to The Brief, a First National Bank (FNB) newspaper in 2025, over 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in our country are owned by women, indicating a transition towards more inclusive entrepreneurship in the nation. Nonetheless, despite the increasing prevalence of women entrepreneurs, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2022/23 study indicates that women are disproportionately represented in the smallest enterprises within highly competitive, low-margin markets and industries.

According to Alhorr, women entrepreneurs have increasingly embraced digital technology, with social media serving as a potent tool for business expansion, customer relationship cultivation, and visibility enhancement. In addition to social media, several individuals are embracing e-commerce, artificial intelligence-based commercial tools, and online financial services. Initiatives like ImpactHER and EntreprenHER, together with financial support for women-owned enterprises from local banks such as First National Bank of Namibia, have been established to promote and empower women-led businesses. Despite advancements, substantial gender discrepancies persist in numerous regions worldwide. This study provides further insight into women's use of social media to disseminate knowledge and promote the digital economy in our country.

Methods

A qualitative methodology was employed, utilising content analysis of literature regarding social media and the digital economy among women entrepreneurs in Windhoek, Namibia. I conducted interviews with intentionally chosen women entrepreneurs to examine how social media influences their business activities in the digital economy through knowledge sharing, marketing, and direct online sales to clients. Participants were informed about the study's goal, no personal data was collected, and they were made aware of their right to withdraw from the discussion if they experienced discomfort. I use literary excerpts and interview quotes to substantiate assertions made in this article. As a librarian, researcher, and female entrepreneur working in Namibia's academic community, I encountered participants in spaces where entrepreneurship and knowledge collide, such as women's business networks, WhatsApp groups, and digital cafés.

Use of social media by women entrepreneurs

The digital report for Namibia 2025 indicates that approximately 98% of the Namibian population has mobile connectivity, with 53% having internet access. According to Karabaczek & Horváth in their 2025 publication, women pursue entrepreneurship out of necessity, frequently due to limited formal employment opportunities, utilising digital tools and exceptionally affordable smartphones to enhance business practices, broaden market access, and boost productivity, thereby facilitating income generation. Women see social networks as an essential source of revenue, stability, and an opportunity to close the economic divide.

Women entrepreneurs in our country primarily use social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to exchange information, advertise their businesses, improve operations, and build workforce skills. Specific organisations, including DNak, have embraced e-commerce, conducting their activities exclusively online, enabling clients to acquire things via digital channels.

“ I am in the Hair industry, I mostly use WhatsApp and Instagram for marketing my products” But I also use WeChat to connect with suppliers in China and to translate the details on products that I got on the Pindoudo App, a catalogue of products from different suppliers in China.
“I use Instagram and WhatsApp to market my Foot Spa business. I have a business account and pay for advertising to push traffic for my business”

Across Namibia, women are turning to digital platforms not only to sell products, but to share knowledge, build networks, and support one another. These online spaces offer fresh opportunities to bridge social and economic divides and to create work environments that reflect women’s values of collaboration and care. Some of the most inspiring examples include:

The Agelvipa platform in Namibia. It integrates e-commerce with the empowerment of women. A Namibian woman entrepreneur established it to equip African entrepreneurs with tools, training, and digital visibility that facilitate market access, business scaling, and global competition.

D-Nak. This organization manufactures Eembe jam, derived from Eembe, also known as "bird plum," an indigenous wild fruit native to the northern regions of Namibia. It promotes its products via Facebook and TikTok, and operates an online B2C platform for direct customer purchases. Visit the Dnak website: https://www.dn-nak.com/product/eembe-jam/. This woman entrepreneur’s success has led to awards and funding from the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology.

Female entrepreneurs and content creators can leverage affiliate programs to endorse major corporate brands on social media and earn commissions. Leonard and Kiana, in their publication on the use of social media for knowledge sharing among women entrepreneurs in 2022, said that social media provides numerous advantages, including economical marketing and advertising avenues, the capacity to connect with a broader audience and collaborate with other entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to obtain customer feedback on products and services, thereby enhancing customer loyalty, brand identity, and reputation. An entrepreneur in the milling industry stated that she uses social media to build connections with prospective investors, funders, and mentors. I personally use social media to explore different ways to add value to indigenous food, and I am now testing the market for Bambara groundnut instant porridge and soup thickener.

Challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the digital economy

In our country, the digital economy, utilising social media and technical tools such as AI, is transforming global trade and commerce and offering new prospects for equitable growth and sustainable development. Nonetheless, these opportunities are not uniformly accessible, especially for women entrepreneurs who encounter considerable obstacles to complete engagement. The United Nations Trade and Development report of 2025 states that women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa face complex hurdles stemming from technological and structural barriers, such as limited digital connectivity, inequitable access to funding, skill deficiencies, and underrepresentation in leadership. Being a woman entrepreneur in our country is not easy; we face challenges including restricted access to capital, inadequate entrepreneurial, financial, and marketing skills, insufficient government support and online bullying. High internet data costs, cybersecurity concerns, and widespread online spam further exacerbate these challenges. The absence of entrepreneurial, financial, and marketing acumen, along with insufficient governmental backing, constituted major obstacles for women entrepreneurs, alongside the elevated costs of internet data, cybersecurity concerns, and a high incidence of online scams, as described in Leonard and Kiana's 2022 publication. Women entrepreneurs in our country involved in export businesses, such as Leni Hair Boutique, report facing a range of challenges, including cyber security threats, online scams, elevated shipping and transportation costs for products imported from abroad, and substantial taxes levied by the Ministry of Finance on exported goods.

“There are also scammers at one times. I lost my N$5000.00 with suppliers in China”
“Emerging women entrepreneurs and those who do not have the skills, have language barriers, and (who) cannot pay through the app are likely to be scammed, as they pay through agents”
“There are many costs involved, especially the shipping costs. Cargo used to be cheaper, but because of NAMRA's strict rules, they dropped out. We now use individual agents who serve as transporters; they charge a lot. For a cellphone it will cost N$1000.00, and you will still be charged for NAMRA VAT”.

Despite Namibian women leveraging social media for the digital economy, platforms used for content creation such as YouTube and TikTok, do not acknowledge Namibia as a recipient for view monetisation. The women content creators derive their main benefits from affiliate programs or from acting as brand ambassadors for larger corporations. Moreover, multinational payment programs like PayPal and Apple impose restrictions on our country. Women entrepreneurs are permitted to transfer funds, but they cannot withdraw funds from these platforms into their local banks.

Conclusion and recommendations

Digital entrepreneurship is increasingly adopted by Namibian women entrepreneurs, especially in Windhoek, to foster creativity, economic empowerment, and social influence. Through social media, Namibian women are not only entrepreneurs but narrators of new identities crafting forms of digital womanhood rooted in care, resilience, and cosmopolitan belonging. Furthermore, by using online platforms to sell their goods directly to customers, Namibian women have embraced e-commerce, thereby contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. However, they encounter challenges. These include restrictions placed by international payment systems like PayPal and inadequate revenue generation from well-known social media platforms like TikTok, which prevent Namibian content producers and female entrepreneurs from making the most of these important channels. To overcome these challenges, a coordinated approach and additional funding are required. This includes working with foreign companies to enable women entrepreneurs to profit from international platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. This plan entails providing training courses in entrepreneurship and digital literacy, as well as reducing VAT for nascent women-owned enterprises. Addressing the issues mentioned in this article will create a supportive atmosphere for female entrepreneurs. Addressing them will promote equitable growth, equality, decent work, and hasten the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Bibliography

Alhorr, L. (2024). Essays in Development Economics: Evidence on Entrepreneurship, Digitization, and Gender.

Data Portal (2025) Digital 2024: Namibia. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-namibia

Karabaczek, M., & Horváth, C. (2025). Making Digital Upskilling Programs More Effective for Women Entrepreneurs. https://caribou.global/publications/making-digital-upskilling-programs-more-effective-for-women-entrepreneurs/

Leonard, A., & Kiana, L. (2023). The influence of social media on knowledge-sharing practices among women entrepreneurs in Windhoek, Namibia.Regional Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 8(2), 149-169.

Paradigm Initiative (2024). Digital rights and inclusion in Africa report.

Semente, E. M. (2019). Women Entrepreneurship in Namibia: Challenges and Prospects. International Journal of Applied Management Sciences and Engineering (IJAMSE), 6(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJAMSE.2019070101

The Brief (2025). Women now lead over 70% of Namibian SMEs. https://thebrief.com.na/2025/07/women-now-lead-over-70-of-namibian-smes/

United Nation Trade and Development. (2025) Breaking down barriers for women digital entrepreneurs: Insights from Africa Technical cooperation outcome. https://unctad.org/publication/breaking-down-barriers-women-digital-entrepreneurs-insights-africa

World Bank group (2022). Namibia. Retrieved from: https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/economies/namibia

Anna Leonard – Career Profile

Anna Leonard is a Senior Librarian for Research and Scholarly Communication and a part-time lecturer at the University of Namibia (UNAM). She is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of South Africa. Anna serves on several national and international committees, including the IFLA Open Science and Scholarship Advisory Committee (ASSAC), the Crossref Membership and Fees Committee, the SPARC Africa Management Committee, and Namibia’s National Committee developing the Research Output and Journal Accreditation (ROJA) Framework. She is also a member of the Decentralised Committee on Research Ethics, School of Humanities, Society and Development. A former member of the Library Publishing Coalition’s Ethical Framework for Library Publishing Task Force (2021–2023), the University of Namibia Press Editorial Board, and the Namibia Information Workers Association (NIWAN), she has wide-ranging research interests spanning scientometrics, research evaluation, scholarly communication, open science, open access, digital scholarship, information management, and science communication.

Some of her research can be accessed at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_zEwmKgAAAAJ&hl=en

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