At 68 years old, Lillian Bouwer Niemann has became one of the first women in Africa to have her business listed on the New York Stock Exchange, E-Square Education Enterprises. She chats to Leigh-Anne Williams about how, over the past 30 years, she has empowered more than 42,000 students through a network of schools and colleges in the Eastern Cape, many of them Xhosa-speaking learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Her path to the NYSE listing was marked by intense personal sacrifice, legal battles, and takeover attempts, but she remained steady in her mission of educational support.