Africa’s female entrepreneurs: the rising force transforming the continent

SUB-SAHARAN Africa has the highest rate of women involved in entrepreneurial activity globally, at 26%,” according to a recent report by the Harvard University Center for African Studies.

These numbers highlight a promising trend: African women are stepping up as key drivers of economic transformation. Yet, behind the statistics lies a dual reality. While female entrepreneurs are rising, they often face unique barriers that hinder growth and limit their impact.

This burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit was on full display at the recent Africa Tech Female Founder Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

Billed as the continent’s largest gathering of women tech entrepreneurs, the event celebrated transformative leadership and strategic partnerships as the keys to scaling businesses.

The summit’s emphasis on collaboration and innovation resonates with the increasing recognition of female entrepreneurs as pivotal to Africa’s development.

Against this backdrop, Goldman Sachs announced an expansion of its 10,000 Women initiative to empower African women entrepreneurs further.

In partnership with nine financial institutions, including Stanbic Bank Kenya and Ecobank Cote d’Ivoire, the initiative aims to address one of the most pressing challenges facing women-led businesses: access to capital and training.

“10,000 Women has had a powerful impact to date, but we know that there are more women to reach and more potential to be realized,” said Charlotte Keenan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.

Since 2008, the program has supported over 200,000 women in 150 countries. Now, its expanded focus on Africa is set to “supercharge the growth of women-owned businesses” by providing access to business education and skills development, as well as by mainstreaming lending to female entrepreneurs.

According to Nathalie Kouassi Akon, IFC’s Global Director for Gender and Economic Inclusion the impact of initiatives like 10,000 Women  could be transformational.

Expanded partnership

She said the expanded partnership was “a significant step forward in creating equitable economic opportunities for women in Africa, enabling them to build stronger, more resilient businesses and to realize their entrepreneurial goals”.

The challenges, however, remain significant. In many African countries, female-led enterprises face systemic hurdles, from limited financing options to deeply ingrained cultural biases.

This is why events like the Africa Tech Female Founder Summit are so vital. By providing platforms for learning and networking, they empower women to overcome these barriers and build scalable, impactful businesses and achieve success not just for themselves but for Africa as a whole.

Voice editor Vic Motune spoke to two female entrepreneurs about the opportunities open to them and how they deal with the challenges they face. 

ELIZABETH NYEKO – MODULARITY GRID

As the founder and CEO of Modularity Grid, a London-based startup, Elizabeth Nyeko’s passion is finding a solution to one of Africa’s key development challenges: how to bring affordable efficient electricity to rural communities.

Her company builds technologies to improve small-scale electricity generation and distribution systems that power homes and businesses in areas which national governments on the continent find too expensive to cover with the national grid. 

The Oxford graduate is also the co-founder of Mandulis Energy which builds biomass-fired mini-grids in Uganda. 

Lack of access to electricity

“One in five people in the world don’t have access to electricity and that was a challenge I wanted to take on” she said. “It’s a problem that has huge impacts on health, on education, really wide reaching impacts on people’s ability to earn money and improve their livelihoods. 

“Access to energy is not just an important sustainable development goal, it has an impact on all of the other sustainable goals.

“So when I founded my company and Mandulis Energy with my brother Peter who’s an aerospace engineer we realised we had the technical skills needed to tackle this challenge and it also meant something personally to us as well.

Statistics are pointing to the growing importance of female entrepreneurs in Africa. Are you seeing this in your own experience?

“There’s huge amounts of progress. For example, in a place like Uganda, there are more women entrepreneurs than male ones.

“Lots of small businesses are run by women. What the banks are now finding when they start giving out loans is that the creditworthiness of the women they give out loans to are increasingly higher than men because they make sure they pay back their loans.

“People are beginning to see the numbers and that women entrepreneurs are worth supporting and that they should be doing more around supporting women in business.”

Despite their success are there still challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, especially in your field of engineering?

“Whether it’s Africa, whether it’s the UK it’s exactly the same…too few women are involved in engineering which makes it quite challenging when you’re going out and trying to pitch a completely new piece of technology or when you’re trying to pitch a new idea that involves the use of a proven technology. People go ‘do you really know what you’re talking about?’

“And what you find is that when you start your pitch, you have to start with your credentials and why you’re qualified  whereas a man can just walk into a room and start talking about the idea he wants to present and selling the big vision.”

DR FUNMI ADEWARA – MOBIHEALTH INTERNATIONAL

Dr Fumni Adewara, a Cambridge trained NHS physician and bioscience entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Mobihealth International. 

Before developing her skills in the UK, she initially trained in Nigeria at the University of Ibadan.

Mobihealth International is an innovative telemedicine and digital healthcare platform with a mission to make affordable quality healthcare accessible to people in Nigeria, with plans to incorporate the business in Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya. 

Through the mobile phone app, the company provides a complete care package to patients who can afford to pay a monthly fee of between $10 and $27.

This includes video consultations, quality diagnostic tests, access to genuine medications, and specialist referrals. Poorer patients who may not have smartphones are served by clinics that travel to rural communities and connect to Mobihealth  International’s doctor network. 

What inspired the creation of Mobihealth International?

“One of the biggest healthcare challenges is the shortages of doctors. If you look at the population of Nigeria we have a 200 million population, a similar population size to America which has 1.2 million doctors. However Nigeria has only 72, 000 registered doctors.  

“But there’s even more bad news in that 50 per cent of them are outside the country.

“And if you were to interview the doctors that are left behind, nine out of every them want to leave.

Mobile technology adoption

“However Africa is one of the fastest growing markets in mobile technology adoption. If you were to look at Nigeria alone we have nearly 90 per cent mobile penetration.

“It’s unacceptable that anybody should die from preventable causes and technology can change this narrative. And this is what drives my passion.”

You’ve been praised for being one of a new generation of African female entrepreneurs in the field of technology. Are you seeing other women coming through?

“There’s been a lot of change recently and you can see that Africa is the only continent where female entrepreneurs are blazing the trail.

“When you look at tech, people still look at tech as the exclusive preserve for a male child and women are not actually supported or encouraged to go into that field.

Positive changes

“That is now changing because people are seeing the benefits of having girls involved in the sector but there is still much room for change and growth.

“I know of many other female entrepreneurs who are using technology to scale up their business. We’re still very far away but there are positive changes.”

The UK government has spoken of its desire to back female entrepreneurs in Africa, especially those heading technology businesses. Do you welcome this?

“We have delivered more revenue, more growth, and we are more  likely to invest our profits into the economy That is why it worth backing female entrepreneurs.

“The statistics are showing that they will deliver long term value, not just for their families but the economy at large.”