African women unite at FuturePoint Africa’s IWD leadership workshop

On Saturday, March 8, FuturePoint Africa marked International Women’s Day 2025 with a virtual event, Women and Leadership Workshop, a program under its Africa’s Power Girls Initiative. The workshop brought together exceptional women from across the African continent for an insightful experience on leadership, breaking barriers, policy advocacy, and feminist influence. Participants joined from different parts of the continent such as Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania.

FuturePoint Africa is an NGO with a mandate to connect and empower young African talents. The group’s operations runs on the idea that Africa is the youth capital of the world and, as such, must be the global capital of progressive leadership and innovation.

A member of the Nigerian team, Oluwatooni Owoade, who moderated stated that she was proud as a woman to experience the brilliance and resilience of these women in attendance and how much effort they are dedicating to shaping their future and that of other African women. The guest facilitators were trailblazing Edem Ossai, a lawyer, development expert, and founder, MAYEIN (from Nigeria), and Memory Banda who is a social justice, and human rights advocate and founder of Foundation for Girls Leadership (from Malawi).

Speaking on the necessity for capacity development for African women, Ossai said, “Women empowerment in leadership and governance isn’t merely about representation.” She added that it is very important to provide young women with the confidence, tools, support, and network required to learn, influence, and inspire others to make a sustainable impact in their community and continent at large.

Reinforcing this point, her Malawian counterpart Memory Banda foregrounded the place of “policy changes, legal frameworks and grassroots movements and public sensitization” as essential tools for “mitigating gender-based disparities and reforming social injustice against women.”

FuturePoint Africa also recognizes the input of selected participants including Oladele Oreoluwa, Wangui Loise, Raqibatu Zukaneni, Blessing Dogbey, Claire Wanjiku, Sumeiya Omar, Joyce Irene, Anna Pamba, Chizo Okafor, Neerali Paresh, Equagoo Thomasia, Grace Njeri, Aminah Balunywa, Sally Coredo, Precious Huntley, Fathia Adetola, Ekure Amba, Jirita Mohammed and Joan Kimberly.

Adedapo Treasure, FuturePoint Africa’s program director expressed his confidence that the greatest impact of the event was the shift in mindset for attendees. “We see Africa’s Power Girls Initiative growing into a continent movement where young women in leadership gain exclusive access to mentorship, community support, and skill development amongst other opportunities to ensure that more women occupy governance and decision-making spaces,” he said.

For Moses Anjorin, FPA’s program coordinator, seeing participants from diverse backgrounds and different countries, each bringing their unique challenges and aspirations is a mission accomplished. “The discussions were bold, honest reflections and show commitment to action,” Moses added.

The successful workshop was a launchpad for FPA’s long-term initiatives that will continue to equip and support emerging female leaders across the African continent, Oluwatooni, the group’s communications associate, disclosed.