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Rewriting the narrative: the women entrepreneurs set to transform Africa's economy

Dr Funmi Adewara (left) and Lolade Oresanwo are among the female entrepreneurs in Africa to watch
Dr Funmi Adewara (left) and Lolade Oresanwo are among the female entrepreneurs in Africa to watch

Businesses led by women will be key to boosting Africa's economic potential, Alok Sharma – the UK's International Development Secretary – has said.

The continent is already home to the highest concentration of female entrepreneurs worldwide, with roughly a third of all businesses led by women.

Yet historic and systemic barriers mean women’s overall contribution to the economy remains low. On average, male-led businesses still have access to six times more investment than their female counterparts. And in sub-Saharan Africa, almost two thirds of women do not have a bank account.

Mr Sharma said that correcting this gender imbalance would be high on the agenda at the UK-Africa Investment Summit (AIS), taking place in London on Monday.

“When women are economically empowered, their whole community benefits,” he said. “Africa's full potential can only be realised if the energy and ideas of the whole population are unleashed.”

The summit touted by the government as an opportunity for the UK to boost international trade post-Brexit and will be attended by the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss as well as Mr Sharma – a sign of how important the government views strengthening trade links with countries outside Europe.

The summit will also give UK companies the opportunity to make contact with businesses in Africa – a continent whose economic growth the International Monetary Fund predicts to be 3.8 per cent this year, compared to Europe's more modest 1.7 per cent.

And women are at the forefront of this growth. According to a report by management consultants McKinsey, increasing economic opportunities and empowering the female workforce could add $12 trillion to the value of the global economy by 2025.

But, as the summit line-up demonstrates, there are already a growing number of African business women who are holding their own on the international stage – here is our pick of five female entrepreneurs to watch.

Rebecca Enonchong, CEO of AppsTech

The Cameroon-based businesswoman burst on to the tech scene in 1999 with the launch of AppsTech, an information technology company that provides security products and business software.

AppsTech took off during the dotcom boom of the early 2000s and was quick to secure major clients such as the TransTelecom Group. And 21 years on, the company is still going strong, with clients in 50 countries, including Russia, Brazil and Australia.

For two years in a row, Ms Enonchong was named one of the world’s most influential Africans. And, unwilling to sit back and relax, she’s recently ventured into the world of co-working office spaces with I/O Spaces, which caters to the African diaspora in Washington DC.

But despite her accolades and impressive CV, Ms Enonchong’s journey has not been straightforward and for many years she chose not to include her job title on her business card because she thought clients would not believe she was the CEO.

Rebecca Enonchong, CEO of AppsTech 
Rebecca Enonchong, CEO of AppsTech

“For many customers, if they think that they’re dealing with an African, a lot of times they don’t believe that we’re capable. If it’s a woman then they believe that we're even less capable,” she said.

“I’m an African woman in tech. It is rare now, but it was extremely rare when I was starting. When you take a picture in your mind of what a successful tech entrepreneur looks like, it’s a white male. How we were able to grow and scale was by promoting the brand and hiding the identity of the company.”

But she said that attitudes have come a long way since the 1990s and the summit marks a positive cultural shift: “This summit will provide us an opportunity to say, hey, Africa is not just about [extractives and the energy sector]. It’s also about technology.

“We’re developing successful and viable businesses in tech that provide a different investment opportunity.”

Lolade Oresanwo, COO and Director, West Africa ENRG

In 2012, Lolade Oresanwo left a career in banking with HSBC to set up West Africa ENRG, a waste management company based in Nigeria that manages nine landfill sites in the country.

Open dumping is a pressing issue in much of the developing world, including Africa. A huge portion of the Nigerian population still buries or burns their waste and some states in Nigeria have even gone so far as to declare a state of emergency.

Lolade Oresanwo, COO and Director, West Africa ENRG 
Lolade Oresanwo, COO and Director, West Africa ENRG

Since 2012, West Africa ENRG has diverted around seven million tonnes of waste from landfill, returning waste to the production line – either as recyclable material or as fuel for waste-to-energy conversion. The process is so efficient that even the ash coming off the waste management system can be harnessed and is used to build roads.

Ms Oresanwo believes that there is a huge amount of untapped value in both waste management as well as its workforce. Of the 3,000 Nigerians working for West Africa ENRG, 70 per cent of staff are women.

“That’s a deliberate move,” said Ms Oresanwo. “We deliberately employ women. It helps them, it helps their children. And I say to them: it doesn't matter if you are educated, as long as you show me that you have the drive and tenacity, I will make you a business manager. That’s our ethos.”

Dr Funmi Adewara, CEO and founder of MobiHealth

Social stigma, long waiting times and poverty often stop people accessing basic primary healthcare in Nigeria.

One woman trying to change that is NHS clinician Dr Funmi Adewara. Two years ago Dr Adewara founded MobiHealth, a United Nations endorsed app that enables anybody anywhere in the world to connect with a doctor on their mobile device within minutes. It launched in Nigeria, but one day Dr Adewara hopes to take it fully global.

Dr Funmi Adewara, CEO and founder of MobiHealth 
Dr Funmi Adewara, CEO and founder of MobiHealth

Membership costs around 1,800 Nigerian naira ($5) a month for a family of six and MobiHealth fronts the cost of mobile data, meaning patients do not incur additional charges while using the app.

“Opportunities created by the summit will be great for women entrepreneurs and I think it will be really encouraging for other entrepreneurs back home to see that we are leading businesses that are scalable,” she said.

“[It will] showcase the tremendous work that female entrepreneurs are doing across Africa. And it’s going to help to increase employment opportunities and grow the economy for African countries and the UK.”

Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-Founder and COO for PiggyVest

Odunayo Eweniyi broke new ground when she launched a mobile banking app, PiggyVest, in 2016. Just as start-ups such as Monzo or Starling have shaken up the UK's banking industry, PiggyVest has revolutionised personal banking in Nigeria.

It’s thought that around 60 million Nigerians don't have a bank account, which shuts them out from many economic opportunities.  Giving poorer people access to finance and the opportunity to save, send and receive money can lift whole families out of poverty.  Unlike traditional banks in the region, PiggyVest doesn’t charge users to open an account and so far it has helped 350,000 users save more efficiently.

Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-Founder and COO for PiggyVest 
Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-Founder and COO for PiggyVest

Ms Eweniyi - who was named one of the top 20 young wealth creators in Africa in 2019 by Forbes Africa - says PiggyVest is a huge step up from the wooden box that many Nigerians use as a means of squirrelling away savings.

For too long the myth that Africa is one big homogenous country has stopped the world from seeing what Africa is and what it can become, said Ms Eweniyi. But the UK-Africa summit and its commitment to gender inclusivity is a welcome development.

"The African tech space is still skewed towards men. It's much better than it was, but now we're able to show young girls and women that they can do it too,” she said.

Leonie Badger, CEO of Studio Badge

Leonie Badger has a degree in architecture from MIT and for a brief time worked for McKinsey in New York, but a career break took her home to Ghana. Surrounded by her family of artists, she decided to change tack and opened Studio Badge, a design and manufacturing home décor studio in Accra, Ghana.

Studio Badge is working to change the perception of products “Made in Africa” by creating stylish homeware pieces from Ghanaian wood and collaborating with big local brands.

Leonie Badger, CEO of Studio Badge 
Leonie Badger, CEO of Studio Badge

The company is supported by the UK Department for International Development She Trades programme, an initiative that supports female-owned businesses in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Bangladesh, helping women find trade and investment opportunities to expand their business.

To date, She Trades has helped close to 3,000 female entrepreneurs and businesswomen generate around £24 million in sales leads.

"The She Trades programme is honestly incredible," says Ms Badge. "In general the Ghanaian woman is so empowered in business. If you go down to the market the businesses are run by women. There are strong examples everywhere but seeing who rises to the top, it’s still male dominated.

"So it’s important to have programmes like this. They bring businesses like mine to the forefront and allow us to share and engage with people."

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