Carolina Cerqueira is a distinguished Angolan politician and lawyer who made history as the first female President of the National Assembly (2022–2025). Her leadership normalised female representation in top-tier decision-making, overseeing a parliament where women chaired critical committees like Defence and Security.

As a veteran advocate, she successfully championed gender-sensitive budgeting and stricter domestic violence laws. Previously, as Minister of State for Social Affairs, she spearheaded monetary transfer programmes that empowered hundreds of thousands of women. Cerqueira remains a global champion for women’s rights, positioning girls' education as a vital mechanism for national stability and security.

Vera Daves de Sousa is the Minister of Finance of Angola, widely recognised for her strategic expertise and shattering glass ceilings as the first woman in this role. Appointed in 2019, she successfully navigated complex national crises, remarkably slashing Angola’s debt-to-GDP ratio from 119% to 58% by 2024. 

Beyond fiscal management, she is a vocal advocate for girls' education and economic formalisation to empower informal traders, a sector dominated by women. Her leadership has transformed women’s visibility in high-level governance, proving that gender is no barrier to managing one of Africa’s largest economies.

Lesego Chombo is a Motswana attorney and the current Minister of Youth and Gender Affairs, appointed in November 2024. Transitioning from her role as Miss World Africa, she became the first woman under 30 to hold a ministerial position in Botswana. 

Chombo founded The Genesis Project to support disadvantaged rural children and their parents, and launched Law Talks, the nation’s first prominent digital platform for free legal education on child rights and GBV. She  is leading the charge on a Gender-Based Violence Bill, and pioneered the Budget Pitso for Youth, ensuring young women’s economic needs are integrated into national treasury decisions.

Agang Ditlhogo is the co-founder of The Clicking Generation (TCG), a social enterprise that provides computing and technology curricula to children and teens across Botswana. With over 12 years of experience in the ICT4 Development sector, she has successfully expanded digital literacy to rural areas such as Maun and Rakops. Under her leadership, TCG has trained over 6,000 students and 100 teachers in coding since 2014. 

A former Mandela Washington Fellow and Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, Ditlhogo serves as the Botswana Country Lead for Africa Code Week and a National Expert for the UN-World Summit Award. She is a vocal advocate for women in STEM, previously working with UN Women to dismantle the systemic barriers that prevent girls from pursuing careers in male-dominated technology industries.

Patricia Zoundi Yao is a trailblazer in rural development and the first female president of the Movement of Small and Medium Enterprises, representing over 2,500 SMEs.

Through her agribusiness, Canaan Land Africa, she empowers women farmers, who make up 86% of her network, by providing training in sustainable techniques and direct access to urban markets. Her work effectively bridges the digital and economic divide, lifting thousands of rural families out of poverty through fair wages and financial independence.

Raissa Banhoro is an Information Science Engineer revolutionising Côte d’Ivoire’s digital landscape.

As Director of Simplon Côte d’Ivoire, she pioneered free, intensive training for underserved youth, boasting a 100% graduate employment rate. The RFI Challenge App Afrique winner has empowered over 1,300 women and children through digital acculturation, helping women triple their earning potential and ensuring poverty no longer dictates their digital future.

Echo Nomsa VanderWal is the Executive Director and co-founder of The Luke Commission (TLC) in Eswatini. A physician assistant by training, she relocated from the U.S. in 2005 to provide free, compassionate healthcare to the most isolated populations. Under her leadership, TLC evolved from a mobile outreach unit into the Miracle Campus, a 130-bed referral hospital. VanderWal’s transformative impact includes establishing a national drone delivery system and the Luvelo digital health platform. By scaling innovation and local leadership, she has turned Eswatini into a global model for equitable, tech-driven healthcare in low-resource settings.

Estelle Ondo is a transformative force in Gabonese politics, instrumental in the 2021 legal reforms that abolished the duty of obedience to husbands and established women’s rights to head households and manage assets. She successfully championed the right for women to access credit and bank accounts without marital consent while strengthening the Penal Code against gender-based violence.

As a high-profile leader, she supported the 2025 Electoral Code, mandating a 30% female candidate quota. Through her association, GEM OEM, she provides direct educational support to girls, ensuring national policy translates into local opportunity.

Grace Manuella Engoang is a prominent serial entrepreneur and the founder of Gabon Fly Women Entrepreneurship, an NGO dedicated to the financial independence of vulnerable women. A pioneer in Gabon's digital landscape, she launched the Digital Divas initiative as part of the 2025 Business Talk series to teach women how to leverage technology for scalable business growth.

Engoang bridges the gap for rural and youth populations by providing free technical training and mentorship. Frequently featured on Gabon 24, she champions digital visibility as a vital tool for boosting the economic status of African women.

Farida Bedwei is a celebrated software engineer and disability rights advocate who has transformed inclusive technology in Africa. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at one, she bypassed conventional schooling to become a leading tech innovator. She co-founded Logiciel Ghana and developed gKudi, digitising traditional Susu savings to give unbanked women secure financial access.

She also created Karmzah, the first comic featuring a superhero with cerebral palsy. A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, she continues to break barriers in fintech leadership and accessibility.

Ethel Cofie is a leading African technology entrepreneur and advocate named among the top women shaping the continent’s tech future. Founder of Women in Tech Africa, she grew the first Pan-African women-in-tech meetup into a network spanning 30 countries and 5,000+ members.

In 2016, she launched the inaugural Women in Tech Week, reaching over 10,000 women across Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia. As lead analyst for Ghana’s pioneering MOTECH maternal health platform, she advanced mobile health innovation. She also chairs Ghana’s ICT Sector Skills Council, embedding gender inclusion into national digital skills strategy.

Nice Leng’ete is a celebrated activist who has helped over 21,000 girls escape FGM and child marriage by 2026. A Mandela Washington Fellow and recipient of the Laureate Freedom from Want Award, she was the first woman to address Maasai elders at Mount Kilimanjaro, securing a historic commitment to end the practice in 2014.

Through Amref Health Africa and her own foundation, she continues to champion education and bodily autonomy as the new rite of passage for young women.

Renice Owino is the founder and CEO of Code with Kids, an initiative that has reached over 2,500 children in Nairobi’s Kibera slum by early 2026. Her programme provides essential training in web development, mobile app design, and physical computing across 20 schools.

A former leader of Tech Dada, Owino is a fierce advocate for narrowing the gender gap in technology. By equipping disadvantaged youth with high-level technical skills, she is fostering a new generation of Kenyan innovators ready for the global digital economy.

Margaret Kenyatta redefined the role of African First Lady through hands-on public health leadership. Through her Beyond Zero initiative, she built Kenya’s first nationwide mobile clinic network, reaching all 47 counties and delivering prenatal care and HIV testing to more than 400,000 women in remote communities.

In 2014, she became the first First Lady globally to complete the London Marathon, transforming endurance sport into a fundraising platform for maternal health. She later established the Margaret Kenyatta Institute at the Kenya School of Government to advance gender-responsive leadership and also championed wildlife conservation through Hands Off Our Elephants.

Umra Omar returned from a career in Washington, D.C., to serve Kenya’s isolated Lamu Archipelago. She founded Safari Doctors, pioneering a monthly sea-clinic model that uses traditional dhows and speedboats to deliver medical care to 65 remote islands near the Kenya–Somalia border.

In 2022, she became Lamu County’s first female governor candidate, challenging entrenched gender norms. A 2017 UN Kenya Person of the Year honouree with her team, Omar also introduced a One Health approach and created a Youth Health Ambassador programme training local young people as Community Health Workers.

Zandile Winile Sakoane is a leading social researcher focused on removing the economic barriers that force girls out of school. As Director of 1 Billion Rising Lesotho, she pioneered the link between menstrual health and academic outcomes, evolving from basic menstrual product distribution to an entrepreneurship programme where girls produce and sell their own products.

Through the Maleah Foundation, Sakoane campaigns fiercely against child marriage and early pregnancy. Her strategy uses art and poetry to empower youth to demand a future free from violence and a seat at the national policy table.

Mpho Letima is a digital transformation pioneer working at the intersection of technology, creativity and indigenous knowledge. As founder of the GEM (Gender Education and Media) Institute, she equips Basotho women to lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She launched the SWIFT Codes Fellowship, recognised by the African Union among the continent’s top youth innovation spaces, and hosted Lesotho’s first Girl Tech Talk Conference.

Letima also spearheaded the country’s first CubeSat prototype initiative, advanced robotics participation, and led large-scale coding programmes training more than 7,000 girls and 14,000 children nationwide.

Matina Razafimahefa is an EdTech entrepreneur reshaping Africa’s digital economy. A former child tennis champion, she co-founded SAYNA, a Franco-African platform that blends gamified tech training with a micro-task marketplace, enabling students to earn while they learn. Under her leadership, SAYNA became the first Malagasy start-up to secure major international equity funding.

She also co-founded French Tech Antananarivo, uniting founders and investors in Madagascar. To date, she has trained more than 7,500 learners and enabled payment for over 25,000 IT tasks, breaking down traditional barriers to tech careers.

Dr. Germaine Retofa is Director of the Androy Regional Referral Hospital in southern Madagascar, where she has unified maternal healthcare in one of the country’s most deprived regions. She led implementation of the Convergence Zones model, aligning partners like UNFPA and UNICEF to integrate nutrition, surgery and primary care. Under her leadership, the hospital achieved a record of zero maternal deaths among women who reached the facility, even in emergency cases.

She also pioneered solar-powered surgical services, a free ambulance referral system bridging rural distances, and comprehensive maternity kits to remove financial and social barriers to care.

Valisoa Liesse Razafisalama is a young humanitarian reshaping disaster response in Madagascar by centring women’s health, hygiene and dignity. A communications student and Malagasy Red Cross volunteer, she pioneered the integration of Menstrual Hygiene Management into national emergency relief kits, elevating menstrual justice to a core survival need. She bridges climate resilience and reproductive health policy, ensuring girls are not excluded during crises. Through stigma-breaking campaigns and intergenerational dialogues in cyclone shelters, she has reached thousands. Her work has earned recognition from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as a leading voice in gender-responsive humanitarianism.

She bridges climate resilience and reproductive health policy, ensuring girls are not excluded during crises. Through stigma-breaking campaigns and intergenerational dialogues in cyclone shelters, she has reached thousands. Her work has earned recognition from the International Federation of Red Cross as a leading voice in gender-responsive humanitarianism.

Dr. Rachel Sibande is a digital development powerhouse and founder of mHub, Malawi's first technology incubator, which has trained over 40,000 youth. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, she won the Next Einstein Forum Innovation Award for generating electricity from maize cobs. She champions Girls 4 Code and AI initiatives, providing direct economic opportunities and STEM mentorship to women across the continent.

Ulanda Mtamba is the Country Director for AGE Africa and the first female President of the Rotary Club of Limbe. Recognised on the BBC 100 Women 2023 list, she is a relentless campaigner for girls' education and reproductive health.

As an AVAC Fellow, she led the national task team to introduce the dapivirine vaginal ring in Malawi, pioneering new biomedical HIV prevention choices and providing life-changing mentorship through her leadership at GEM.

Charity Salima is a legendary midwife who transformed maternal healthcare in Lilongwe’s high-density Area 23. After retiring from government service, she founded the Achikondi Women’s Community Clinic to stop women dying en route to distant hospitals.

Since 2008, she has overseen more than 12,000 deliveries with zero maternal deaths—an extraordinary record in a high-risk setting. She pioneered a sliding-scale barter payment model so no woman is turned away. In 2019, she became the first Malawian midwife honoured with a Commonwealth Point of Light Award, cementing her national legacy.

Anishta Babooram is the Junior Minister of Health and Wellness and a lifelong activist who joined the Labour Party at 17. A former member of the National Preventive Mechanism Division, she founded Rising News to provide a platform for marginalised voices.

In 2025, she spearheaded the SHEpreneurs Mauritius initiative and announced a landmark government commitment to equal pay for equal work to close the 20% gender wage gap. Babooram also champions extended parental leave and targeted ICT scholarships to ensure women remain central drivers of the Mauritian economy.

Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra is a preeminent lawyer and the current Speaker of the National Assembly, elected in November 2024. A historic first, she served as the country’s first Minister for Women’s Rights and first female Attorney General.

She gained international acclaim for the 1981 UN Human Rights Committee ruling in Aumeeruddy-Cziffra v. Mauritius, which overturned discriminatory immigration laws. Having also served as the first Ombudsperson for Children, she remains a cornerstone of Mauritian institutional reform and a global champion for inclusive justice.

Alexandra Machado is the co-founder of Girl MOVE Academy, a global benchmark for social innovation and winner of the 2021 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Her unique intergenerational model achieves a 90% school transition rate, tripling the national average, while keeping child marriage rates below 2%. By early 2026, her academy’s decade of operations generated an estimated €49 million in economic gain for Mozambique, proving that investing in female leadership is a high-return strategy for national development.

Josina Z. Machel is a survivor-turned-activist transforming gender-based violence response in Mozambique and Southern Africa. Daughter of Samora Machel and Graça Machel, she founded Protect Her Life, pioneering GBV-focused micro-insurance offering emergency, legal and financial support for abuse survivors.

Through the Kuhluka Movement, she established a Pan-African Rebirth model creating comprehensive safe havens beyond traditional shelters. Earlier, she launched Mozambique’s first workplace wellness consultancy focused on HIV/AIDS education. As a UNFPA SADC spokesperson and advocate for survivor-centred judicial reform, she is driving systemic change at regional and global levels.

Sara Fakir is a leading force in Mozambique’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2010, she co-founded ideiaLab, the country’s first private business incubator, establishing professional infrastructure for early-stage startups. She later introduced and scaled FemTech, a women-focused accelerator expanded across Namibia, Tanzania and Angola.

As founding President of the Mozambican Business Angels Association (AMBA), she connected women-led ventures to private capital. A certified Master Trainer in global entrepreneurship methodologies, she has trained over 13,500 entrepreneurs, nearly 4,000 women and became the only Lusophone finalist in Jack Ma’s Africa’s Business Heroes competition.

Monica Geingos is a renowned entrepreneur and the third First Lady of Namibia (2015–2024). Through her One Economy Foundation, she launched the One Nation Fund, providing interest-free loans and mentorship to micro-entrepreneurs. A pioneer in financial inclusion, she was the founding Chairperson of Namibia’s first digital bank and chaired the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

Today, she leads the #BeFree Campus, a centre of excellence integrating youth healthcare with innovation, while serving on the board of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center to elevate African women in public leadership.

Selma Ashipala-Musavyi is Namibia’s Minister of International Relations and Trade and a veteran diplomat. A pioneer in gender-responsive reform, she was a key architect of the historic UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the first to formalise women's roles in international peace. In 2025, she oversaw the Windhoek +25 Declaration, reaffirming global commitments to the Women, Peace, and Security agenda.

Having served as the first female Executive Director of her ministry and Chair of the UN Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, she remains a global champion for integrating gender perspectives into national governance.

Dr. Helena Ndume is a world-renowned medical pioneer and Namibia’s first Black female ophthalmologist. A former refugee who fled apartheid at 15, she returned to build a healthcare system where sight is a fundamental right.

As Head of Ophthalmology at Windhoek Central Hospital and CEO of the Okakarara Eye Institute, she established high-volume mobile eye camps that have performed tens of thousands of free surgeries. A 2015 UN Nelson Mandela Prize laureate and 2022 Forbes Woman Africa Social Impact Award winner, Dr. Ndume continues to scale her humanitarian model across borders, ensuring poverty never dictates a patient’s vision.

Aramide Abe is a leading expert in the African SME sector and founder of Naija Startups, a virtual hub supporting 90,000 small businesses. As a consultant for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Country Business Index, she directly influences trade policies to benefit women-led enterprises across the continent.

Currently leading global youth and women’s entrepreneurship programmes at the African Development Bank, Abe focuses on scaling systemic support systems. Her work bridges the gap between private sector innovation and the formal policy frameworks required to drive sustainable economic growth for African women.

Ibukun Awosika is a trailblazing entrepreneur and the first woman to lead the board of First Bank of Nigeria. She co-founded WIMBIZ, the premier organisation for institutionalising mentorship for women in the corporate sector. Through the Ibukun Awosika Leadership Academy and her Life Series programmes, she has provided structured professional development to over 10,000 professionals by 2026.

A passionate advocate for the girl-child, her book, The Girl Entrepreneurs, serves as a vital guide for women navigating the African business landscape, transforming mentorship into a national framework for success.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a cultural architect who redefined the 21st-century African narrative. A MacArthur Genius Fellow, she was the first Nigerian woman to win the Orange Prize and the first African woman featured on covers like The New Yorker.

Her viral TED talk The Danger of a Single Story and the global manifesto We Should All Be Feminists, sampled by Beyoncé and distributed in Swedish schools, have moved feminism into the mainstream. Through her critically acclaimed novels such as Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, Adichie continues to break new ground, expanding the horizons of possibility for African women in literature and global cultural discourse.

Hauwa Ojeifo is a prominent activist and founder of She Writes Woman. Transforming her personal diagnosis of bipolar disorder into a national movement, she provided critical testimony that led to the passage of Nigeria’s first updated mental health law in over 60 years. In 2016, she established the country’s first 24/7 mental health crisis helpline, followed by the launch of Safe Place Nigeria, Africa’s premier walk-in clinic for youth. Her work has successfully destigmatised mental health and sexual violence, creating a permanent, institutionalised support network for vulnerable Nigerians.

Nassimah Dindar is a prominent French politician from Réunion and the first woman elected President of the General Council (now Departmental Council) of the island, as well as the first Muslim woman to lead a French department. A former grassroots activist, she has long championed social equality and women’s rights.

As a Senator and local leader, she has advocated strongly for victims of domestic violence, urging national leaders to prioritise prevention. Her work connects economic opportunity with protection from violence, expanding professional and political pathways for women.

Chantal de Gouvion Saint Cyr moved from the police to found Stop aux Violences Intra-Familiales (SVIF), using her police experience to redefine Réunion’s response to domestic violence. She pioneered the introduction of the first digital and physical alert button allowing victims to contact emergency services and trusted networks simultaneously. She partnered with mayors in Réunion to offer survivors of violence a first-time transition from emergency shelters to permanent homes.

She set up the first mobile support units to reach the isolated mountainous regions, bringing justice to women geographically cut off from urban judicial centres.

Mary Balikungeri is a foundational figure in Rwanda’s journey of healing and empowerment. As founder of the Rwanda Women’s Network, she transformed post-genocide survival into a national protection and justice framework. She formalised Rwanda’s first community-based Safe Spaces, integrating medical, psychological and legal support under one roof.

Balikungeri pioneered holistic GBV clinics combining clinical care with paralegal services, ensuring immediate access to justice. In 2018, she became the first Rwandan activist honoured with the Commonwealth Point of Light Award. Through university mentorship pipelines and male ally programmes, her work now supports more than 25,000 women annually.

Jeanne Yamfashije is a foundational pillar of Rwanda’s digital transformation. A co-lead of Girls in ICT Rwanda, she has dedicated her career to positioning women as builders of technology. Among the first Rwandan women to earn an MSc in IT from Carnegie Mellon University Africa, she set a benchmark for global technical excellence.

She helped architect Ms. Geek Rwanda, the country’s first national innovation challenge for girls. Through regional cybersecurity leadership, cascade mentorship and rural bootcamps, Yamfashije now helps future-proof hundreds of young women annually.

Aminata Touré is a pre-eminent politician and the second female Prime Minister of Senegal (2013–2014). She fundamentally altered the legal standing of women by spearheading the 2013 Nationality Law, allowing them to pass citizenship to children and foreign spouses. A fierce defender of the Parity Law, she helped drive female parliamentary representation to over 44%.

Drawing on over 20 years of UN experience, Touré has integrated reproductive health and microfinance into the national budget, redefining female leadership through her resolute anti-corruption and human rights advocacy.

Binta Coudy Dé is a visionary Senegalese computer engineer reshaping West Africa’s digital economy. In 2012, she co-founded Jjiguene Tech Hub, the region’s first technology incubator designed, led and managed exclusively by women. Through school-based coding outreach and mobile app workshops, she dismantled barriers to STEM access for girls.

Her volunteer-driven mentorship model ensures cost is never an obstacle, while her holistic curriculum blends Python and web development with leadership and public speaking. By formalising a pay-it-forward system, Dé has scaled grassroots digital literacy across Senegal.

Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe is a transformative leader and Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Through African Fashion International, she turned a fragmented industry into a job-creating engine for women. A powerful advocate for systems change, she successfully campaigned for gender responsive budgeting in the South African Parliament.

Her foundation has cleared millions in student debt and provided 2,500 bursaries for women in STEM, while her 2025 leadership at the Gender, Equality, Wellness and Leadership Summit positioned her as a leading voice on gender equity in AI.

Lerato Lehoko is a high-level investment leader and the pioneer behind Bonds4Jobs, the first platform in South Africa to utilise Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). These innovative mechanisms align diverse stakeholders to achieve specific social outcomes through performance-linked financing.

As Chairperson of the Nedbank Black Business Partners Legacy Trust, Lehoko leverages her expertise in inclusive finance to create sustainable employment pathways, ensuring that social interventions are both measurable and economically viable for marginalised communities.

Mandisa Maya is a historic legal pioneer who shattered the glass ceiling as South Africa's first female Chief Justice. She has authored over 200 reported judgments, setting vital precedents in gender and language rights. During her 2022 appointment, she took a courageous stand against judicial sexism, advocating for formal maternity and sexual harassment policies.

Her leadership is defined by a commitment to transforming the bench into a truly inclusive institution that reflects the constitutional values of equality.

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim is a global health colossus and the first woman President of The World Academy of Sciences. She transformed the fight against AIDS by developing tenofovir gel, breaking women’s dependence on men for safe sex negotiation. Her research was the first to highlight the extreme vulnerability of adolescent girls, forcing a global shift in public health policy.

By championing human-centred design in clinical trials, she has turned scientific discovery into systemic protection for millions of women across Africa.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema is a Tanzanian biodiversity expert, lawyer and UN Assistant Secretary-General currently serving as the Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. A titan of global environmental governance, she gained international acclaim as the head of the UN Biodiversity Convention, where she orchestrated the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Mrema is a transformative force in gender-inclusive policy, mandating that women’s land rights and livelihoods are central to climate resilience. By reframing rural women as masters of their craft rather than victims, she has redefined biodiversity action to be both ecologically sound and socially just.

Nuru Awadh Abdallah is a prominent Tanzanian advocate for the rights of women with disabilities and a survivor of domestic violence. She made history as the first visually impaired person to serve as a Ward Councillor in Tanzania, redefining political inclusion at local government level.

Through a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Anaa Fashion Centre, she established a vocational training programme tailored specifically for blind students. By publicly sharing her lived experience of violence within the context of disability, Abdallah has influenced national conversations and policy reform on ending violence against women.

Rebeca Z. Gyumi is a prominent Tanzanian lawyer and feminist activist best known for her landmark legal victory against child marriage. As founder and executive director of the Msichana Initiative, she advances girls’ rights and access to education through initiatives such as Arudi Shule (Back to School), One Girl, One Bike and the #PediBilaKodi campaign to end period poverty.

Before launching her NGO, she spent eight years with Femina Hip as a media advocate. In 2018, she became the first Tanzanian woman to receive the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Dr. Theopista Ntale Sekitto is a prominent Ugandan banker and social entrepreneur advancing financial inclusion across Africa. She is leading, with Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, the creation of Africa’s first Citizens Financial Reference Bureau to protect consumers through transparent guidance on financial products. In 2025, she was honoured for championing Uganda’s adoption of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code, inspired by the Financial Alliance for Women Summit.

While at DFCU Bank, she designed one of the country’s first comprehensive Women in Business programmes. She also conceived FINISAVE and proposed Uganda’s first digital borrowing guidelines to curb predatory lending.

Jamila Mayanja is a Ugandan social entrepreneur transforming education through practical innovation. She pioneered Uganda’s Solar Smart Bag, combining a solar study light with a reusable sanitary kit to combat period poverty and school dropouts.

Founder of the Girls with Tools programme, she leads large-scale vocational training for slum-based women in mechanics, carpentry and electrical trades. Her Class on Wheels mobile STEM lab brings coding to remote villages. In 2023, she became the first Ugandan educator to win the Schools 2030 Global Innovation Award for human-centred design solutions keeping girls in school.

Barbara Mutabazi is a Ugandan technologist and social entrepreneur reshaping Africa’s digital economy. She co-founded Hive Colab, Uganda’s first tech innovation hub and accelerator, and later established Women In Technology Uganda (WITU), the country’s first dedicated digital skills centre for underserved women.

As founder of Nsimbi Impact, she launched Africa’s first AI-powered digital women’s bank serving last-mile entrepreneurs. Her co-developed Digital & Financial Literacy Toolkit was adopted by the Bank of Uganda, standardising nationwide training and advancing women’s economic sovereignty.

Mwangala Maunga is a Zambian STEM advocate and child rights activist advancing rural girls into institutional science careers. She founded Girl Power Platform Zambia to equip girls aged 13–19 with technical, facilitation and climate leadership skills.

A 2025 GLOW Global Coaching Fellow and Women Empowering Nations Network Ambassador, she also serves as Director of Young Girls Lead. In 2024/2025, she received the Africa Genius Award. Through her Pad Reach initiative (launched 2025), Maunga tackles period poverty to keep girls in school and on STEM pathways.

Natasha Banda is a prominent Zambian finance professional and advocate for SME development and financial inclusion. A senior representative at First National Bank Zambia, she focuses on dismantling barriers preventing small-scale entrepreneurs, particularly women, from accessing formal capital. She spearheaded the Eastern Province MSMEs and Cooperatives Capacity Building Programme, a pioneering partnership between the private sector and Zambia’s Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development.

By implementing a needs-based advisory model within FNB, she has expanded access to tailored financial tools for cooperatives, earning recognition as a premier banker bridging the trust gap between communities and commercial banks.

Muzvare Betty Makoni is a pioneering Zimbabwean gender activist and founder of the Girl Child Network, the country’s first organisation dedicated to protecting girls from sexual abuse and exploitation. A survivor herself, she became the first Zimbabwean woman to publicly confront childhood sexual abuse, catalysing national dialogue.

She designed Zimbabwe’s first Empowerment Villages, integrated safe havens providing shelter, medical care and psychological healing. In 2012, she became the first African woman to receive the Afrikan Goddess Award and later served as Global Ambassador for the 19 Days of Activism campaign.

Sicelo Dube is a Zimbabwean biotechnologist and entrepreneur commercialising science for national development. She founded LEC Biotech, the country’s first female-led manufacturer of affordable laboratory chemicals and equipment for underserved schools.

Through Elevate Trust, she pioneered Zimbabwe’s first mobile laboratory programme, bringing hands-on experiments to remote districts. Creator of the i-Glow innovation hubs and architect of the STEM2Industry model, Dube bridges classroom learning with industrial careers. Appointed as Zimbabwe’s first female Science Ambassador, she champions gender-responsive industrial policy and women-led biotech enterprises.