S’THOFENI GININDZA NAMED MADE IN ESWATINI BUSINESS ICON AS HE CALLS FOR GLOBAL-MARKET THINKING

By: Nkosiyabusa Nsibande

Investment banker and African Alliance Group Partner S’thofeni Ginindza has been named the Best Made in Eswatini Business Icon, turning his acceptance speech into a broader argument for a more ambitious approach to local enterprise development, investment and market creation.

Speaking at the Made in Eswatini Consumer Choice Awards at Hilton Garden Inn Mbabane on Thursday evening, Ginindza said the central challenge facing businesses was not simply producing locally, but developing enterprises that could meet international standards and compete for demand beyond Eswatini. The awards, held under the broader Made in Eswatini movement, brought together local businesses, consumers and business leaders to recognise homegrown products, services and enterprises.

Ginindza argued that the concept of “Made in Eswatini” should not be interpreted as a strategy confined to the country’s domestic consumer base. Instead, he said businesses should view Eswatini as a production base from which to access larger regional and international markets. “When you create a market, you do not look from a Swazi or Eswatini perspective. You look at it from a SADC perspective, an AU perspective, an EU perspective, and others,” he said.

For Ginindza, the economic value of local production ultimately depends on whether businesses can convert their products and services into revenue from outside the country. He challenged entrepreneurs to move beyond measuring opportunity by the size of Eswatini’s domestic market and instead pursue customers capable of bringing foreign currency into the economy. “The biggest way to make money is what? We need dollars to come from this audience here, Made in Eswatini, but what? Earning dollars and pounds,” he said.

That argument places export competitiveness at the centre of the local-content debate. Rather than viewing Made in Eswatini primarily as a branding exercise, Ginindza’s remarks positioned it as a question of business scale, product quality, market access and foreign-exchange earnings. A local business that can sell beyond Eswatini effectively expands the addressable market for its investment, production capacity and workforce without being limited by domestic consumption.

Ginindza also linked this ambition to the standards that businesses must meet if they are to attract international capital and compete outside the country. Drawing from his experience in investment banking, he said local companies seeking international funding cannot expect foreign institutions to lower their requirements simply because a business originates in a small market. “When you build, do not build it just to satisfy your local demand. Do not build it also to the standards of your local market standards. When you build, it should qualify to be of global standards,” he said.

He illustrated the point by referring to African Alliance’s experience of raising funding from international financial institutions. According to Ginindza, accessing capital from major international financial institutions requires local businesses to meet rigorous standards around the quality of their investment propositions and documentation. The lesson, he said, is that Eswatini companies seeking international capital must prepare themselves to be assessed against international benchmarks rather than domestic expectations.

The same principle, he argued, should apply to consumer-facing businesses. Ginindza pointed to the group’s retail and property interests, including Pick n Pay stores, KFC outlets and shopping centres, as examples of an approach that seeks to deliver standards comparable with international markets. He said the objective was to create establishments where customers and visitors could experience facilities that meet global expectations rather than accepting lower standards because the business operates in a small economy.

His argument extended into the supply chain, where he said local producers supplying major retailers must recognise that their products ultimately compete on the same shelves as goods from other markets. Referring to local agricultural suppliers, Ginindza said producers cannot expect retailers to compromise on quality simply because the goods are locally produced. “When they buy your product, whether it’s carrots, lemons, or cabbage, when they hit the shelf, they’re not written Eswatini. They are Pick n Pay,” he said.

That distinction is important for local manufacturers, farmers and suppliers because access to larger retail channels can create significant commercial opportunities, but only if producers can consistently meet requirements relating to quality, reliability, packaging, volumes and delivery. For Ginindza, localisation therefore does not mean lowering commercial standards; it means creating local businesses capable of meeting them.

The investment banker also used his own business journey to make the case for diversification as a risk-management strategy. He said African Alliance had expanded beyond financial services into areas such as property because businesses and investors should not concentrate their exposure in a single sector. “The more you spread, the better your risk profile,” he said, linking diversification to the lessons of previous global financial crises, when weakness in one sector could create severe pressure for businesses heavily concentrated in that area.

That philosophy reflects a broader financial principle, diversification does not eliminate risk, but it can reduce the consequences of concentration by distributing exposure across different assets, sectors and sources of revenue. For businesses operating in a relatively small economy, Ginindza’s argument suggests that diversification can also involve geographical expansion, allowing companies to reduce their dependence on domestic demand.

He further stressed that financial-sector development must be accompanied by financial education. Reflecting on the development of investment services in Eswatini, Ginindza recalled resistance when the concept of investing through the stock market and mutual funds was introduced. His response, he said, was straightforward: “Educate and educate and educate,” arguing that greater financial understanding allows more people to participate in investment markets and benefit from economic growth.

The comments are particularly relevant to Eswatini’s efforts to deepen domestic capital markets. A stronger investment culture can increase the pool of domestic savings available for productive investment, while better-informed consumers and investors can make more deliberate decisions about where their money is placed. For businesses, a more developed capital market can also create alternatives to conventional bank borrowing.

Ginindza’s broader message was therefore less about celebrating individual local businesses and more about changing the scale at which Eswatini businesses think. He argued that companies should anticipate demand rather than simply respond to what already exists, and that entrepreneurs should be willing to pursue opportunities that initially appear too large for the local economy.

The challenge, however, is that global-market ambitions require more than confidence. They require businesses to invest in production capacity, technology, governance, financial controls, skills, quality assurance, branding and distribution systems capable of supporting international customers. They also require access to appropriately structured capital, particularly for enterprises attempting to move from small-scale production into commercial volumes.

Ginindza’s message ultimately placed the financial objective of Made in Eswatini beyond domestic consumption. The long-term opportunity, he argued, lies in building businesses that can use Eswatini as a base while selling into larger markets and bringing external revenue into the country.

“Made in Eswatini” in that context becomes not merely a statement of origin, but a commercial proposition: locally created businesses must be capable of producing at a standard that earns the confidence of consumers, investors and institutions beyond the country’s borders. For Ginindza, the measure of ambition is therefore not how small the domestic market may be, but how effectively Eswatini businesses can use that base to compete, diversify and earn internationally.