After her secondary studies and a brief period as a secondary school teacher, Leckrani Soobagrah joined Air Mauritius in 1972. She continued her career in air travel as Travel Consultant at Rogers Aviation from 1976 to 1980. Afterwards, as a shareholder in Budget Tours, she offered consultancy services in reservations and ticketing.
In 1987, she started her own travel and tours company under the aegis of Bonny Air Travel & Tours Ltd. A few years later, she created a sister company Bonny Air (International) Tours Ltd catering for in-bound tourism. She is recognized in the travel industry as one of the pioneers who promoted aggressively and successfully the Mauritius destination on the Indian market.
After several years of active membership in AMFCE, she was elected President of the Association for the statutory mandate of 2 years for 2006 and 2007. She continued the good work of her predecessors in reinforcing the visibility of women entrepreneurs through networking, sharing knowledge and experience, and mentoring grass-root women entrepreneurs.
To further the AMFCE mission of bringing together women who have invested or managed singlehandedly or jointly businesses in the manufacturing, service or retail sectors, a dinner conference was organised in November 2006 in collaboration with the French Embassy in Mauritius. In an exclusive speech, the main guest speaker, Mrs Laurence Danon, the then CEO of “Printemps” in France talked on the theme of “Branding.” Printemps is a renowned French department store chain known for particularly for its lines in beauty, fashion and lifestyle. The topic was chosen when Mauritius was facing one of its biggest economic challenges, that of having to position itself at International level where quality and standard were the top priorities.
In May 2007, AMFCE organized the International Day for “Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises” in collaboration with the South African Embassy. Delegates from South Africa joined Mauritian women entrepreneurs for the event.
In July 2007, a gathering of 30 unemployed women was organized to mark the opening of a Mauritian speciality restaurant at the seat of the “Mauritian Alliance of Women in Quatre Bornes, one of the main towns in Mauritius.
In August 2007, with a view of building a nation of creative and innovative women entrepreneurs, AMFCE participated in the mission linked to the visit of Mico Bosch Ltd, India, to Mauritius. Mr Murthy, Strategic Consultant with Mico Bosch Ltd in India and who is also a Technical and Vocational (TVET) Specialist, shared with us his experience in women empowerment in non-traditional sectors.
In November 2007, an MOU was signed between the United Nations Development Programme and Women in Networking (WIN) for the Women Leadership Programme project. WIN is an apolitical network which was founded in May 2006 by the following four key organisations:
Leckrani is still an active member of AMFCE and continues to act as coach to women entrepreneurs in Mauritius. As far back as 2006 she was selected as one of the five nominees of the TECOMA award, which is awarded yearly to five top entrepreneurs in Mauritius. In August 2014 she was also nominated for the award of the most influential woman in Africa in the tourism and leisure category.
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