South Africa is currently tackling the high unemployment rate of 24.5%, with more than two million teenage girls living in impoverished homes. Given the option to choose between bread and sanitary towels, for the average women living in South Africa, there is no choice.

Simphiwe Mntambo, Jovana Korac and Tebogo Motubatse are the ladies that run Kgoshigadi, a social enterprise that employs economically disadvantaged women to manufacture and distribute low-cost, bio-degradable sanitary pads made from agricultural waste. The sanitary pads are manufactured in mini-factories where opportunities for employment and business ownership are available through their social-franchise business model. Kgoshigadi caters to women and girls who cannot afford commercial sanitary pads, and as a result, miss school or work.

Kgoshigadi is currently incubated at The Innovation Hub through its BioPark@Gauteng programme which helps enterprises and research institutions turn their biosciences based ideas into sustainable commercial businesses. The three ladies were admitted into the programme after winning the third prize in the annual GAP Innovation Competitions in partnership with the Technology Innovation Agency.

“The GAP Innovation Competition and the feedback we received from the adjudication panel helped us to start creating on a comprehensive business plan. This gave us a good foundation in understanding every component of our business which will help in creating a sustainable startup. From training to the final adjudication, we have learned how to present our business to potential investors as well prepare for the critical areas of solid business startup”, said Simphiwe Mntambo, co-founder Kgoshigadi.

Kgoshigadi has recently been announced as one of the finalists in the Green City Startup Competition established by the City of Joburg and the University of Johannesburg, winning R250 000 in funding towards the development of their prototype.