Black entrepreneurship and food across Africa and the Diaspora

In this workshop Loretta Awuah will look at the earliest examples of commerce and raising finance in Africa and the diaspora, as well as showcase famous black entrepreneurs in Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and the UK. The presentation will also look at the current state of affairs concerning black business owners in the UK i.e. challenges and experiences through recent published reports, and the support that is out there to support entrepreneurs locally and nationally, and also within communities through the practice of group economics. Embedded within this presentation, the culinary roots and traditions of cuisines across Africa and the diaspora will also be explored and celebrated.

Loretta Awuah is the Strategic Business Support Manager at GLL (otherwise known as Better) and oversees GLL's Start Up services, as well as the delivery of the West Kent Business Programme.

She has extensive experience in designing, delivering and securing government funding for business support programmes, in addition to supporting pre-starts and early start ups through consultations, workshops and connecting them with business experts.An avid writer and event organiser, Loretta has written guest blogs for the Commercial Education Trust, the British Library Business and Intellectual Property Centre, and worked with award winning journalist Emily Maitlis, the Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and Dave Fishwick (Bank of Dave) to deliver business events. More recently, she interviewed Harry Redknapp during GLL Start Up Business Week.

Prior to her current role, she delivered the Start Ups in London Libraries (SiLL) project in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, which was a pan London project designed to support aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. Her work experience also spans working within financial services, education and the third sector.