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Women to watch out for Posted Thu, 03 Mar 2005
Africa’s women have come a long way since the 1995 Beijing conference. Slowly, they’re making in roads into business and politics. The support structures are still not that great, but there are women who continue to make their mark against all
these odds. We list some of these women here, while certain that we have not even begun scratching the surface of Africa’s emerging female leadership.
Hafsat AbiolaInspiring greatness
Hafsat Abiola is a human rights civil liberties activist in Nigeria. At 28, she already has accomplished a lot. She’s the founder and executive director of the
Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to empower democracy and development in Africa. She’s also a founding member of
the State of the World Forum’s Emerging Leaders Program and Global Youth Connect. She sits on the boards of the Youth Employment Summit, Women’s Learning Partnership and Hewlett
Packard’s World e-Inclusion Project.
Her work has received widespread international recognition with several awards under her belt. These include one from the Association for Women in Development’s “Woman to Watch for” Award in 1999, the World Economic Forum’s Global “Leader of Tomorrow” Award in 2000, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation “Global Award”. She’s an accomplished writer who’s articles have been published in various international magazines including the New
York Times, Time and Newsweek.
She was educated at Harvard University graduating with a degree in political Economy. In 2015 Hafsat Abiola will be 39, and will remain remarkable as a young woman who stood up during Nigeria’s darkest hours of military dictatorship and
oppression.
She has outstanding advocacy skills, political clout as well as the good will of many Nigerians and pro-democracy organisations around the world.
Elizabeth Joyce VillarsIn the
name of computing
Elizabeth Joyce Villars is an accomplished businesswoman in Ghana. In a country where the private sector is male dominated, her ascent to the
presidencies of the two most prestigious Business Associations is an outstanding achievement. She is former presidents of the Association of Ghana Industries and the Private Enterprise Foundation respectively. She does seem to have a penchant for soaring above all others. She was the first to set up a computer service bureau in 1974, the first Ghanaian to introduce continuous forms printing in 1980 and also
the first to locally manufacture security cheques and payment
instruments in 1996.
Villars has also won several awards, including the Chartered Institute of Marketing‘s “Marketing Woman of the Year” in 1998. In 1999 she was honoured with the “Millennium Excellence Award” for her contribution to Ghana’s private sector.
In 2000 she won the “Most Successful Woman Entrepreneur Award”. Her story
begins in the ancient city of Cape Coast in the central region of Ghana. She attended Holy Child Secondary School for her Ordinary Level examinations. At a time when most women would have been content with secondary school education, she wasn’t. She proceeded to the IBM Training School in the UK where she obtained a Computer Programming Diploma in 1969. In 1975 she qualified as a Systems Analyst and Designer at the IBM Training Centre in Accra, Ghana.
“My early exposure to computers ensured that I became the first Ghanaian woman to qualify as a Computer Programmer in 1958,” she says with a hearty grin. She has worked with the Volta River Authority (VRA), Dizengoff West Africa and
West African Data Services Bureau, variously as a Programmer and as Systems Consultant.
She has been the Managing Director and Chairman of Camelot Ghana Limited until April 2004, when she relinquished the chair of the company. Her company has won several awards for excellent exhibitions at
trade fares in Ghana and elsewhere.
Villars serves on several boards including the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Social Investment fund, the Ghana Trade Fair Authority and the Ghana Statistical Service.
Wendy LuhabeA Social Entrepreneur
Wendy Luhabe is one of South Africa’s most
powerful women, and one of the world’s
leading female entrepreneurs. She spent ten
10 years at BMW South Africa’s marketing
division before founding her own human resources management
consultancy firm, Bridging the Gap. In 1994 she launched
Women Investment Portfolio Holdings. She considers herself a
social entrepreneur. She’s the chair of various boards including
the leading cellular operator Vodacom, South Africa’s Industrial
Development Corp and the SA International Marketing
Council.
In 2003 she launched South Africa’s first private
equity fund for women-owned enterprises. Her role as a leading
black female entrepreneur has not
gone unnoticed, if you start counting the accolades that she’s been collecting from all over the world. These include the World Economic Forum’s “Global Leader of Tomorrow” in 1997. She was counted as one of the 20 most powerful women in South Africa by the Sunday Times.
She holds a BCom degree from the University of Lesotho (1981). She has recently launched her book called Defining Moments, which recounts the experiences of black executives in South Africa’s workplace over 30 years.
In January 2000 she was featured in a group of likely candidates to be South Africa’s first female president. Given her political clout and contacts - she is
the first lady of South Africa’s richest province, Gauteng, being married to the Premier Mbhazima Shilowa - this does not seem too farfetched. This month she travels to Monaco to receive the 2004 Robin Hood International Award for “Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy” on behalf of South Africa.
Amina
WangariAgainst all odds
Amina Wangari is an established businesswoman
in Niger. She’s the president of the West African Businesswomen Network, an organisation aimed at
lobbying international groups and governments to
support West African women in businesses. The organisation
has already done a lot of work in areas of management training,
information technology and sourcing project finance. Wangari
has made a success of her business in Niger where she founded
a women-owned technological and management training centre,
Le Complexe Technique Wangari. The centre also serves as one
of Niger’s only four cyber cafés. In July 2002 Amina Hassane
Wangari opened her cyber café using a 64kbit satellite connection.
In a country with one of the world lowest rates
of internet connectivity, Wangari offers students of all
ages access to the internet at reduced rates and hosts
training for business women. She started out with
just 30
students, but today the training centre accommodates
over a thousand students. The centre offers
training in ICT, management, business and accountancy.
She plans to acquire her own satellite or VSAT (very small aperture terminal) in order to build on the success of her cyber café, and offer more affordable
Internet services. Wangari also has business interests in the transport and construction sectors.
Nolitha FakudePushing for Black Economic Empowerment
Nolitha Fakude has emerged as one of the
most influential women in South African
business. She is the first female president
of the Black Management Forum
(BMF). She was named by the Financial Mail as one
of the 20 most influential businesswomen in South Africa
today. She was previously Managing Director of
the BMF, where she played a pivotal role in re-shaping
the role of the organisation.
She holds a BA Honours in psychology from the
University of Fort
Hare, and has just completed a
senior executive programme at Harvard Business
School. She serves on various company boards, including
banking group Nedcor, mining firm Harmony
Gold and South Africa’s biggest retail outlet Woolworth’s
Holdings. She is also a council member of
Business Unity South Africa, a body aimed at unifying
black and white business and the NEPAD Business
Steering Committee.
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