Stimbok Team
Meet our CEO
Rehana Malik-Mbanga was born and raised in Zambia, a Southern African nation where she completed the first part of her schooling. She proceeded to study Biomedical Sciences at Griffith University in faraway Australia. Rehana would later earn a degree in Psychology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town holds many fond memories for her. She met the love of her life while studying there. The two would later get married and immigrate to Edmonton, Alberta where they have sown deep roots and built a family that has grown to include 3 lovely children.
Rehana has cross-cutting experience in community development, public health, gender affairs, and entrepreneurship. She comes from a long line of women entrepreneurs who have had to face personal challenges alongside building and sustaining a business in a world with a wide gender gap. Rehana’s father a serial entrepreneur made his money supplying commodities like salt and sugar in the early ’90s in Zambia. Watching her father navigate several businesses forged her early outlook around empowering women to succeed in business and life generally.
In her own journey of starting a business and mothering young children, the lack of diversity and representation around board tables that she has had the privilege to sit on became of particular concern. She quickly realized that her brilliant friends in the immigrant community in Canada may never grow past the small enterprise stage based on a lack of adequate family support, political representation, and mentorship. Much like she had seen in various parts of the world, access to finance plagues women in Canada as it does in Africa.
Rehana’s will to see minority women in her community grow and excel in various spheres and businesses led her to co-create Women Talk Africa. This is a Canada-based platform that convenes women of African descent to table social issues affecting growth. The forum also facilitates strategic partnerships; both formal and informal, with the aim to tackle issues within the African community building on a culture of Ubuntu which in Swahili means Unity.
Rehana has founded Stimbok, a social impact enterprise with operations in Canada, Cote D’Ivoire, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Nigeria. Stimbok supports sustainable development projects which improve entrepreneurship, gender parity, food security, and healthcare access through agribusiness, energy, and infrastructure projects.
Chief Operating Officer
Women Talk Africa (a branch of Women Talk) celebrated the first event in February 2019, Women Talk Africa was created to showcase the amazing women in our community that are owning their power and doing amazing things.
Women Talk created a safe space for women of different races to interact and share their stories. In the hope that by sharing our stories, we will realize that we might look different on the outside, but inside we're all the same. We invite all women to join us for this impactful evening filled with women that will share their extraordinary stories.
Chief Financial Officer
Women must take a special interest in supporting other women in order to help make gender equality a reality. We need to amplify women whose voices are unheard, reach out, and pull women up the ladder into our circles where we have found success.
We need more access to like-minded women that can invest in us by providing access to funds, one on one mentorship, and business consulting that will open doors for more women to play big and win in the areas they have found purpose.
Access to Finance is one of the key challenges that women-owned businesses face globally. According to a Harvard University report, women have access to only 2.8% of Venture Capital globally. In more challenged economies in Africa, the figures for female-owned businesses who have access to capital is even more daunting.
According to an article by National Geographic in 2019, only 37% of women on average across Sub-Saharan Africa had access to bank accounts compared to 47% of men. In most parts of Africa where the financial gap between the poor and the wealthy is increasingly widening, efforts to tackle issues around poverty and gender parity have not yet achieved the successes hoped for. The resulting lack of inadequate participation of women in Africa’s economies leaves a combined loss of $95 billion USD in lost productivity each year.
Drilling down to the Small and Medium businesses space (SMEs), it is important to note that funding/micro-loans for an SME in Canada could be $10,000 to $20,000 while micro-loans (which can make all the difference) for a small business owner somewhere in Lagos, Nigeria or Lusaka, Zambia could be as little as $250.
As a company, Stimbok is committed to finding and channeling appropriate funds and technical assistance to viable business ideas for SMEs in Canada and across Sub-Saharan Africa to build sustainability and bridge the gender inequality gap. We firmly believe and support the underlying principle that women empowerment programs are widely premised on. Building a woman economically equals increased spending in the areas that improve outcomes for her entire family such as proper nutrition, healthcare, and education. Supporting female enterprise is key to lifting nations out of poverty.
Chief of Business and Corporate Development
Lunzaya Nlandu, BBA, PMP
Founder & CEO of Bokasi Ventures Corporation
Lunzaya brings more than 15 years in business development, project coordination, and sales experience in the construction field paired with numerous entrepreneurial endeavors. Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Western Carolina, NC, USA. Lunzaya runs the company’s operations and financing and oversees strategic expansion.
Chief Client Relations Officer
Women must take a special interest in supporting other women in order to help make gender equality a reality. We need to amplify women whose voices are unheard, reach out, and pull women up the ladder into our circles where we have found success.
We need more access to like-minded women that can invest in us by providing access to funds, one on one mentorship, and business consulting that will open doors for more women to play big and win in the areas they have found purpose.
Access to Finance is one of the key challenges that women-owned businesses face globally. According to a Harvard University report, women have access to only 2.8% of Venture Capital globally. In more challenged economies in Africa, the figures for female-owned businesses who have access to capital is even more daunting.
According to an article by National Geographic in 2019, only 37% of women on average across Sub-Saharan Africa had access to bank accounts compared to 47% of men. In most parts of Africa where the financial gap between the poor and the wealthy is increasingly widening, efforts to tackle issues around poverty and gender parity have not yet achieved the successes hoped for. The resulting lack of inadequate participation of women in Africa’s economies leaves a combined loss of $95 billion USD in lost productivity each year.
Drilling down to the Small and Medium businesses space (SMEs), it is important to note that funding/micro-loans for an SME in Canada could be $10,000 to $20,000 while micro-loans (which can make all the difference) for a small business owner somewhere in Lagos, Nigeria or Lusaka, Zambia could be as little as $250.
As a company, Stimbok is committed to finding and channeling appropriate funds and technical assistance to viable business ideas for SMEs in Canada and across Sub-Saharan Africa to build sustainability and bridge the gender inequality gap. We firmly believe and support the underlying principle that women empowerment programs are widely premised on. Building a woman economically equals increased spending in the areas that improve outcomes for her entire family such as proper nutrition, healthcare, and education. Supporting female enterprise is key to lifting nations out of poverty.
Chief Investments Officer
Women Talk Africa (a branch of Women Talk) celebrated the first event in February 2019, Women Talk Africa was created to showcase the amazing women in our community that are owning their power and doing amazing things.
Women Talk created a safe space for women of different races to interact and share their stories. In the hope that by sharing our stories, we will realize that we might look different on the outside, but inside we're all the same. We invite all women to join us for this impactful evening filled with women that will share their extraordinary stories.