Alliance 54 to host Africa Global Women in Business Forum

As a member of the advisory board of the Africa Global Women in Business Forum (AGWIBF), it’s my pleasure to inform you of the upcoming Africa Global Women in Business Forum hosted by Alliance 54 taking place in London on 30-31 October.

The aim of the meeting is to promote financial inclusion for African women and a balance between growth and development. African women play a significant role in the socio-economic development of the continent. They produce 80% of food in Africa yet remain grossly underserved in spite of the massive contribution.

Ernest Okwudike, Founder and Conference Director of Alliance 54, said, “Even though there has been an increase in the number of women-run enterprises from 10% to 30%, they only receive 10% of capital invested. Generally, women have unmet financial needs of over US$320 billion yearly as reported by the World Bank. In Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) states that they need over $19 billion yearly. Therefore, the Africa Global Women in Business Forum’s main objective is to explore the financial options available to women entrepreneurs.”

The forum aims to promote financial inclusion for African women especially for those in the diaspora who still run businesses back home and abroad.  In a statement by Toyin Adeniji, Head of Women in Business Program at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), she stated that it is an exciting initiative and one that will add to the on-going conversation regarding growth and support to women owned business in Africa.  Also, the focus is to discuss practical solutions to the challenges that women encounter daily in their businesses, with inspiration from successful business women.

The forum will be emphasising the importance of developing collaboration between women in the continent and the diaspora to achieve common goals. It will look at the role of media in African women’s business reportage and how to build a successful brand among many relevant topics.

More information about the forum – https://www.agwibf.com/

Early bird registration currently on – expires on August 31, 2013.