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Survivors and Thrivers: The Women Fronting Some Of South Africa’s Coolest Startups

The 12th annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture took place in Cape Town, on October 7, the Archbishop’s birthday. Amina J Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), spoke at the in-person event, themed ‘A Vision for Hope and Healing’. Key in establishing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she has worked as Special Advisor to the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and was formerly Nigeria’s Minister of Environment. She elaborated that while more people are in poverty, denied basic rights, with the climate crisis crossing all borders, social cohesion fraying, inequalities, increasing xenophobia, nationalism and hate speech, it doesn’t have to be this way. The planet has irreplaceable resources and renewable energy, she said, and we’ve never been so connected by technology, living as long, or with as many women in positions of power. More in this interview with FORBES AFRICA:



Q: You spoke a bit about the fourth industrial revolution at the lecture, and you also spoke about decolonizing hundreds of years of education meant for other people. What do you imagine that to look like?



A: I think it starts first of all for from where we create access to education, and the curriculum that we put in place for it. And we talk about the scientific basis that we find we must have in early childcare. I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures – our children are with us until they’re three, attached at the hip, if you would.



So I think that we need to find creative ways of bringing education into the home, and not taking kids to institutions at that early age. So early childhood education, for me, is one transformation that happens together with a mother [for] that bonding in the community, where we say that Africa is brought up by a village and not by a couple of people. So, really bringing that community learning into early child care.



Then, building on that, the primary and secondary education that we need. One that really looks at that intrinsic value of education to a person, a person&#8217;s identity from their cultures, their religion, the good practices – so we don&#8217;t throw the baby out with the bathwater – we&#8217;re always referring to harmful cultural practices, and we never look at it from the positive side. And that we move on from things that we did not know were so harmful because they were so cultural, or so male-vested. And we need to move on. But there are some good things there.



And then really, to begin to build the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, by putting the digital in front so that we&#8217;re not waiting until ‘oh, Africa is ready, or Africa has the resources right at the beginning’. Our ambition is for each child, as a global citizen, and not just an African citizen, but to bring that whole technology and learning into an environment. What I&#8217;m trying to say is that as we learn to have pride and independence of one&#8217;s being, how that contributes from the inside out. So you&#8217;re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem.



I do this because I was part of an education system that did this, although I have to say that we had a broader education. But as years have gone on, that curriculum has become loaded. It has lost its core. And I think people are struggling with who they are, and who they are is such a contradiction to people who want us to join this global family. And I think that we are richer for it if we identify with what we really are. The question of diversity for me is far deeper than the narrow, silo approach that we are seeing on diversity now.



The diversity piece has lost its meaning, because we&#8217;ve sort of pigeonholed different parts of our society that are different, and will choose to live differently. And what we need to see is healthy respect, and that these are the threads of our human fabric. And as such, each thread matters, each thread makes the fabric stronger, not weaker. So the less threads we have, that we leave behind, the weaker that fabric. And I think if you say that to people, then they see themselves in the fabric. It&#8217;s not you against us. And that&#8217;s what really draws me to the Arch [Desmond Tutu]. Because I think he really taught us how to respect what&#8217;s behind our skin. It&#8217;s us, it&#8217;s human beings. And as you&#8217;re born, you&#8217;re incredibly free of everything, and depending where you land, is what shapes you.



Q: You spoke about this at the lecture with your vision for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in light of all of the global and local conflicts. You termed it the ‘world in crisis’, how do you think Africa can move forward?



A: I think essentially, we&#8217;ve got to have a few conversations with ourselves. And there has to be a huge amount of courage that what you&#8217;re doing is shaping the future. I mean, concretely, shaping that future for your people with what you know is the right thing. And this is our leaders, and I&#8217;m saying leaders at different levels, because the leaders that we point to and look to as inspirations and heroes, they&#8217;re all gone now. And I don&#8217;t know who we point to, to replace them. Because today, we&#8217;re so critical of the person, we&#8217;re so judgmental of the person, and we miss the message that that person carries.



I think people like the Arch and Madiba [Nelson Mandela] always recognized their failings. And so people didn&#8217;t have a chance to throw any stones at them. What came out was ‘okay, I&#8217;m not perfect, I&#8217;m not God, but these are the things that I believe in, these are the things that I will fight for’. So as human beings, what we look to is what they stood for. And I&#8217;m not sure today that we give so much grace to leaders. And I think that we have to think and listen to what the leader is saying and doing, rather than judge what&#8217;s in the closet. Everybody&#8217;s got a closet, and some worse than others. But if that person takes a good message that does no harm, that brings people together, that forwards Africa, we need to find that community.



We have a responsibility as followers to get behind them to do the right thing. So conversation, really serious conversation. Whether it happens in the African Union [AU], and I have to tell you that in the AU, when leaders try to get together to have a closed-door meeting, the international community wants to be in on it. Even I, as an African, say to people, ‘oo, I&#8217;m the United Nations’. That&#8217;s their conversation they need to have. I can have a private one as well, as a brother or sister conversation to them. But in this piece here, give them space, because every one of them has baggage, and that baggage is colonial. And many of them are tied to it inextricably, and it&#8217;s hard.



So what common ground can they come together on to move us forward? And I think that the fact that we&#8217;re seeing no solidarity with Africa right now has actually empowered a conversation. I think the United Nations has been helpful for a sanguine Economic Commission for Africa that did a lot of work with the Minister of Finance. So they were able to take the issues in an international arena and argue them, and it&#8217;s quite difficult for our people to do that because essentially, they&#8217;re in their own bubble, fighting the day-to-day challenges of broken democracies and an incredibly different set of difficult situations, conflict, etc.



Q: At the lecture, you were also speaking about the need for self-determination; what does Africa need to do for that?



A: I think we&#8217;ve been told what to do and what&#8217;s good for us. And we have to come back and determine what is good for us. That&#8217;s why I said for education, it&#8217;s really important we think about that. And we think about what skills are going to put a kid, from when they get into school for 15 years, to the workplace? Is it the skills of tomorrow?



Then you hear what&#8217;s going on in South Africa with AI, and you&#8217;re thinking, ‘okay, what is the transition going to look like? How do we build that capacity? How do we look at the financial architecture, which was really built for another era, and not for our development – [what about] access courses or even profiting from the natural resources that we have, so that we can build?’ And so it&#8217;s going to be complex, because we are many, and our issues are very complex.



We need to think, ‘what is the low hanging fruit for a politician that is bound by a four or five-year cycle of democracy and elective office, to one that is longer?’ Longer term means you need institutional memory; that means that the services the institutions need to be able to carry us through these different cycles of elections.



The policy somersaults that we are feeling right now, I guess they feel them in the United Kingdom, they feel them in countries in Europe now that are going so far right from being so far left. So, it’s important, and then I think that, the more we educate people, the better constituencies we have for engaging. You can&#8217;t engage with one person, one vote, when there is quite frankly, a lack of education as to understanding why the vote, and what&#8217;s my vote worth? Is it $5? Or is it educational reform, and health services, and things that are my rights, that&#8217;s what my vote is. So it&#8217;s a little bit of a journey, as you know, the long road to freedom – the road is still being tracked.



Q: Is there anything else you&#8217;d like to anecdotally share on the issues you spoke about either in the lecture or about achieving the SDGs?



A: There are so many. Climate for me is the biggest challenge that we have, and opportunity. So when a farmer says to me that this is not about a flood, or temperatures, it&#8217;s about ‘I wake up in the morning



and my crop is gone because of a dust storm, and that dust storm has come because of drought, and my farm is gone, my livelihood is gone’. And then the livelihoods of all these Maasai women and men that I met, their livelihoods, their cattle have died. You see the carcasses on the road. And we don&#8217;t want to talk about that much. But that&#8217;s assets that have just been taken away. And so when Kenya is dealing with that, they&#8217;re saying, ‘okay, right now, the private sector is coming in, and we&#8217;re asking them to put a fund together, so they buy the cattle before they die’. So there are resources for that community, for the hard times, and they can replenish stock. Then we have put things together that will help us to build back with a level of resilience.



Those are real stories. They are real situations that have to sometimes find their way into the media, into the headlines. Not so much the misery of it, but the way that we can prevent it and then link that to the 1.5 degrees. I think there&#8217;s a disconnect between science, the 1.5 degrees and the reality on the ground. We need to link it, we need to say a third of Pakistan is underwater, because we&#8217;ve just had floods that are melting glaciers, and we can tie that to China, and it&#8217;s industrial pollution. We can do all this. So how do you tell the story?



I listened to an elder just three days ago, and his eyesight had gone. And all he said was ‘we&#8217;re very grateful for what you&#8217;ve been able to give us here, but there&#8217;s a lot of people you can&#8217;t see that haven&#8217;t been able to get to this’. And the first thing he said was women and people with disabilities. And it just made me think, ‘wow, this person right now is not talking about can we have more for me and my tribe’, which is what generally gets into a story, he’s been very specific about the people that are being left behind, that we don&#8217;t see.



I think he&#8217;s given me fodder for my advocacy. Because when I go back into those sterile rooms, that somehow craft language that I don&#8217;t understand, and many people don&#8217;t understand, we can break it down. And this is where I think the partnership with the media is so important. This is a new partnership that we need to have.

Batet Receives Un Deputy Secretary-general, Amina J. Mohammed

‘What We Need To See Is Healthy Respect, And These Are The Threads Of Our Human Fabric’: Amina J Mohammed On Diversity, SDGs, Climate Change and Africa Moving Forward

Onyinye Anyaegbu, the London-based co-founder and CEO of African art trading platform ARTSPLIT, sees art as an alternative investment.



The global art market is estimated to be worth a staggering $65.1 billion according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2022 and Nigerian artists are finally gaining praise. With paintings of renowned artists like the late Ben Enwonwu, considered by most collectors to be the father of Nigerian modernism, fetching over $1.4 million at Sotheby’s and another going for $1.5 million at Bonhams, Nigerian art is in high demand globally and collectors and investors are actively acquiring works with the view of cashing in on the increasing demand.



According to figures from Bonhams, about 90% of the value of their auction sales in 2017 came from Nigerian artists. And poised to disrupt this new art economy is ARTSPLIT, a trading and social app providing users with an interactive space to participate in live auctions, bids, trades, portfolio management as well as access to invest and lease African artworks. According to the London-based co-founder and CEO of the platform, Onyinye Anyaegbu, this solution is a timely answer to an issue most collectors face.



“My brother came to me with this idea about Art. He just started his art journey and got introduced to being a collector and he was really enjoying it and he started collecting art as a great investment. And I was really fascinated by the whole African art space because of him. He told me the problem he had was that right now, as a collector even though you may have about $300,000 worth of art sitting at home, when you take it to the bank, you cannot leverage the art for anything financial,” says Anyaegbu.



“If you ever wanted liquidity you have to sell it out completely. As we spoke we realized that this is such a big collector problem and as Nigerian collectors are probably a bit more sophisticated and really that’s where it started from. As a collector, you collect all this amazing work and you don’t even have enough space for it and you cannot leverage the art for any financial instrument.”



The art trading platform for African art is providing collectors a way to get more out of their work by providing the opportunity to own shares also known as splits of prestigious African artworks that can be traded by collectors in real time.



“So, we figured what if you create a platform where you don’t lose your work but you get other people to invest in your platform and ARTSPLIT was born. The first milestone was the beta testing and seeing all our thoughts come to life in terms of the app technology. We spent a lot of time talking and mapping processes and experiences of how it should feel for a user. How do you trade, where do you trade from, and having a tech partner come in and take that and flip it into an app was amazing and that was a huge milestone for us,” avers Anyaegbu.



The app offers the community of collectors the flexibility of either co-ownership or full ownership with further opportunities for actual tangible ownership of these art works for a period of time.



“It does not end there. ARTSPLIT also provides opportunities for owners of investment grade African art to list their works, have them evaluated and sold to members of our community. You can decide to sell your work in full, or in splits (minimum of 10%) which will enable you to keep the ownership of your work and still benefit from trade of your work,” says Anyaegbu.



Five Nigerian artists took part in ARTSPLIT MOCONA, their split-and-lease online contemporary arts auction in July with bids amounting to $57,000 and with an average growth value of 14%. The auction profiled prominent Nigerian artists paving their way in the contemporary art scene including the likes of Abiodun Olaku, Duke Asidere, Edosa Ogiugo, El-Dragg Okwoju and Oliver Enwonwu.



Anyaegbu and her team are already on their fourth round of funding raising $2.5 million against a $5 million benchmark. ARTSPLIT with its team of art lovers is on a mission to raise the global profile of African art by building a community of collectors and investors as well as providing advisory and management services for art collection.

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App For Art’s Sake: Building A Community Of Collectors And Investors In Nigeria

The word ‘multi’ comes up many times in a conversation with 28-year-old Dubai-based Nigerian businesswoman Gbemi Giwa.



“I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur with a knack for turning ideas into creative impactful brands…. I am a multi-hyphenated person…” she says in a Zoom interview on a hot summer day in August from her abode in the sunny city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.



Although Giwa started out as an influencer and launched several businesses in the glistening Middle Eastern emirate by the time she turned 26, she is wary of calling herself ‘a serial entrepreneur’.



Now making a conscious effort to focus solely on her core competence – the food business – she says her passion project remains Catfish, an online restaurant serving “a healthy twist on African dishes” that she launched in Dubai in 2018.



The realization to hone in on one serious endeavor came after a few “bold moves” and the twists and turns that the Covid-19 pandemic brought when Giwa was forced to close down Gbemi’s Kitchen, the physical restaurant she started in 2019 at the Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai serving authentic Nigerian food.



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“In 2020, Covid hit and for the first time, I navigated a big loss with the shutting of my restaurant concepts, forcing me to start afresh with a larger focus on building a Covid-proof business with a deeper focus on digital,” she says of those tough months.



She started by launching a consulting company called Digiboss to help women in business build their online profiles to establish themselves as thought leaders, whilst consistently attracting profitable partnership opportunities.



“I help millennial women build an impactful personal brand and commit to taking action by teaching them profitable action steps to validate their creative ideas, craft them into polished concepts and launch them into the real world,” says Giwa.



“Using the same method I teach my clients, I was able to secure funding to relaunch my restaurant Catfish just at the end of the pandemic. I’m currently navigating our redirection into the e-commerce space and retail by taking a piece of the growing ready-to-eat industry.”



The food business is not new for her. It was while at design school in 2014 that she launched Dubai Fit Foodie, a wellness blog she calls her “longest-paying side hustle”. Her growing years shaped her early love for African food and she wanted to give it the respect it deserved.



A year later, she turned her love for dancing by launching dance classes in Dubai, teaching Afrofit, which she calls her “second longest-paying side hustle”.



In 2016, she specialized in creating impactful digital campaigns for local and international brands in the Middle East. A year later, yet again foraying into the business world, she launched a boutique agency specializing in branding and content creation for F&amp;B concepts.



‘A good idea is nothing without action’. 



Even when she was 16, on a plane to Dubai from Lagos to enrol at the American University of Sharjah, she was already harboring ideas of creating content and an impactful career. Even if at times, this meant going against the norm and using the word ‘no’ multiple times to her now-late father, also a businessman, who took a keen interest in her professional journey.



“I am from a classic African family that says ‘either you become a doctor or a lawyer, or you are nobody’.



“But ever since I went to design school, I’ve been obsessed with ideas. I believe good ideas come when you explore and exhaust several bad ideas, but a good idea is nothing without action.”



Luckily, she was glad to find herself in Dubai.



“It’s one of the easiest places to do business in, especially if you know the right people and have the money… I always tell youngsters it’s better to partner with the right mentor, as they have the experience and you can keep learning from them.”



Where there’s hustle, there’s also heart.



“My passion will always be around creating content, product, and brands that reflect my African roots and help people embrace wellness in order to feel like their happier healthiest selves,” says Giwa.



Currently catering for events and working towards moving Catfish into the e-commerce space, she will also be seen at The Ripe Market, a farmers’ market in Dubai, from October.

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Hustle And Heart: The Nigerian Entrepreneur Promoting African Food In Dubai

Nigerian creative Mo Abudu is bringing Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman as a film, directed by Biyi Bandele, who passed away early this month.



EbonyLife Group CEO, Mo Abudu, is bringing Professor Wole Soyinka’s 1975 stage play Death and the King’s Horseman as a feature adaptation, in a project with streaming service Netflix.



Nigerian playwright and iconic novelist Soyinka is the first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature — and its first African winner.



The film, set to be the first Yoruba language movie ever to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2022, is based on actual historical events that took place during British colonial rule in Nigeria.



“Our goal whenever we tell African stories is to be truly authentic and stay as close as possible to the original work. In this case, it was especially important because Professor Soyinka’s work is already well-known globally and he is one of the greatest literary talents of our time. It is a great honor to be trusted with telling this compelling African drama steeped in our local traditions,” says Abudu in an interview with FORBES AFRICA.



Soyinka’s play was adapted as a feature film by famed Nigerian playwright and director Biyi Bandele, who passed away on August 7, the month before its premiere.



The filmmaker had grabbed global headlines with his directorial work of the best-selling Chimamanda Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun and the most recent Netflix series Blood Sisters.



“Biyi’s death was a complete shock and unexpected. We were all planning to make it to the TIFF and he was over the moon. He poured everything into this depiction and it is a real loss to the industry,” says Abudu, reportedly the first African to sign a multiple deal with Netflix in 2020.



Death and the King’s Horseman is expected to air after its screening at TIFF.

Mo Abudu, image supplied by EbonyLife

Iconic Nigerian Nobel Laureate’s Play To Come To Life

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“But the business side, you have to learn about it…..we’re not born with that knowledge, you need to learn it.&#8221; <cite>Tiwa Savage, Award-Winning Nigerian singer</cite></blockquote>

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Quote Of The Day

AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE FIGHT FOR BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS for the people of Cameroon is Cameroonian Maximilienne C. Ngo Mbe, recently honored with the prestigious 2022 Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Human Rights Award.



In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Ngo Mbe speaks of her early motivation to take to defending human rights: “My father, being a teacher, saw his rights regularly besmirched and violated… He received a miserable salary and on top of that he had to wait months to receive it. What’s more, the working conditions were difficult. It is all this situation that pushed me to fight since my childhood for the respect of teachers’ rights.” Ngo Mbe, Executive Director of the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC), says receiving the award feels like a dream.



Since 2010, she has led REDHAC in its efforts to promote civic spaces and protect fundamental freedoms throughout Central Africa through investigations of human rights abuses, advocacy before regional human rights bodies, monitoring of democratic processes, and demanding state accountability. She was also named an International Woman of Courage in 2021 by the U.S. Department of State.



“The empowerment of women has always been of paramount importance in so far as their contribution to the management of the household is undeniable,” she says, sharing her thoughts on the importance of uplifting women on the continent. “Is it not women in rural and urban areas who make sure that daily meals are cooked and that children receive an education? If, for any number of reasons, the father of the family is unable to play his role fully, it is the woman who does so effectively. We have seen this during the crises that have shaken the world.”



With over 30 years of experience, Ngo Mbe is sure about her mission going forward.



“I know one thing – I am leading a legitimate and laudable fight for the defense, protection and promotion of human rights. Many people benefit from it in Cameroon and in the Central African sub-region. I receive threats, dirty tricks, but also awards. This is how my life goes and I assume it is a long-term struggle, at the same time exhausting, arduous and exhilarating. How far and when? Only God knows.



“In order to move forward in life, you have to look in the rear-view mirror. I realize that beyond the threats and blows that we take at REDHAC, from afar, we are seen, and we are appreciated.”

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‘Leading A Legitimate And Laudable Fight’ -Cameroonian Human Rights Activist

Temilade Openiyi has had a slew of recent successes and is one of the few female producers in the Nigerian music scene grabbing the attention of global stars.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I would just sit and write about how I was feeling and the things I was going through. It could be about anything and it just came out in a poetic way. That is when I found out I had a passion for music and soon those poems became lyrics.”</blockquote>



In October 2021, Nigerian Afrobeats chart-topper Wizkid released Essence, which would go on to become one of the biggest Afrobeats’ songs also dominating global streaming charts. One of the magical components of Essence was the sultry vocals of Nigerian emerging artist Temilade Openiyi, known professionally as ‘Tems’.



This winner of the Best International Act at the 2022 BET Awards hails from the new movement of artistic expression in the Nigerian music scene known as Alté, meaning alternative, which is a fusion of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and alternative R&amp;B. After gaining worldwide recognition with her hit singles Mr Rebel and Try Me, Essence’s success, which was further ignited by Canadian singer Justin Bieber jumping on the remix, made Tems a household name globally.



“I had no idea my life was about to change when I did that song. Every day since then is like a dream and I am super thankful for the opportunity I have for people to hear my work on a global scale,” says Tems to FORBES AFRICA.



The 26-year-old honed her musical prowess in Lagos, Nigeria, where she was born. She moved to the United Kingdom with her parents as a child but returned home after their divorce. With no friends and a solitary existence, Tems took to writing poems as an escape.



“I would just sit and write about how I was feeling and the things I was going through. It could be about anything and it just came out in a poetic way. That is when I found out I had a passion for music and soon those poems became lyrics,” avers Tems.



With no money, Tems broke barriers by producing her own beat making her one of the few female producers in the Nigerian music scene and soon started getting the attention of global music stars like Chris Brown, Alicia Keys and Adele.



Her track-record has led to other collaborations like the recent hit single Fountains by Drake and Future as well as most recently, being featured on the official EP of the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie where she sings the cover of Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry, which got over 172 million views in just 24 hours.

Temilade Openiyi; image supplied

Right Notes: The Nigerian Singer On Her Own Alternative Beat

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest mainland nation, both in size and population. It’s also home to a growing technology sector, focused on building and deploying tailored solutions for the changing African digital landscape. Among its rising stars are women, many who have had to overcome myriad cultural barriers to join the sector. In turn, they are opening the way for other female leaders in the field. FORBES AFRICA takes a closer look at Gambia’s women in tech.



BY MARIE SHABAYA



AWAMARY LOWE-KHAN WAS JUST 23 YEARS old when she became a Chief Financial Officer. It was a determination to succeed and give her son “the world”, as she now puts it, that drove her career to early heights. Years later, she leveled that energy at another challenge; technology entrepreneurship.



For over a decade now, she has been working in the industry via PointClick Technologies which she co-founded with her husband in 2007 in Raleigh, North Carolina.



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“Relieving girls of the chores [at home] and challenging the [pervasive] gender norms in Gambian culture by encouraging parents to let their girls take a day off may be a solution.”- Awamary Lowe-Khan
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This among a number of innovation projects led her back home to The Gambia, where she not only established the African off-shoot of PointClick Technologies but also The Woman Boss, a female-focused organization tailored to women and girls in the country looking to make their way in entrepreneurship and technology.



“Reduced access to capital is one of the biggest challenges women in tech face. Because of the reduced number of women in tech in the ecosystem, there is a lack of access to women mentors, especially back when we founded our company in 2007.



This also means that there is a lack of access to diverse and inclusive spaces for minority women,” she says.



The Woman Boss is part of a growing movement on the continent and unique in The Gambia as it works to improve the tides for women in the technology sector.



Particularly, in the tiny West African nation, cultural norms and related obstacles have meant that young women have little exposure to technology as a career option even if they make it into tertiary education.



“They tend to pick traditional subjects but never tech. This could be because there are no recognizable leaders in the industry for them. We want to change the norm so when it is time for graduation, they view tech as an option. They are curious about technology as they become familiar with it,” explains Lowe-Khan.



Gender disparities in The Gambia are far-reaching but can be seen clearly when analysing the country’s technology sector. According to a recent World Bank study, in the country’s budding digital economy, gender gaps in the industry begin as early as primary school. It is believed that only 10% of adolescent boys and 6% of adolescent girls (between 15–18 years old) in The Gambia have even basic ICT skills.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:36% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="767" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-767x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55865 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-767x1024.png 767w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-225x300.png 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-768x1026.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48.png 840w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
“Returning to work after maternity leave can be quite challenging for some, and as a result we now have a crèche facility for staff. This is a first in The Gambia and we hope that other institutions can follow suit.” – Dr Jorjoh Ndure-Tambedou
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This is due to a number of prevailing factors including, but not limited to, low digital literacy rates among teachers and teacher trainers, limited access to computers both at school and at home as well as the gender expectations at home which means girls have limited time to practice these skills even if they do have access to a computer.



“Relieving girls of the chores [at home] and challenging the [pervasive] gender norms in Gambian culture by encouraging parents to let their girls take a day off may be a solution,” posits Lowe-Khan. Part of The Woman Boss mandate is to sensitize young women across the country’s high schools with the awareness of the technology sector as well as preparing them for leadership within the field. To date, they have worked with over 1,300 girls in secondary school and, at the same time, empower them with new information about the choices they can make for their future.



“Slowly but surely, we are changing mindsets&#8230; this is all part of innovation. There’s definitely been a change in the last three years since we started in The Gambia. We want to empower young girls to solve their own problems,” Lowe-Khan says. A model of one of these young women in the Gambian technology scene can be found in Jankeh Sanyang. The 25-year-old is a Product Manager at Forté Innovations, a leading software developer in the country’s capital, Banjul. Even she admits that the tech track was an unusual one for a Gambian woman but she entered the industry boldly thanks to the support of her family.



“When I completed high school, my peers naturally went to university or college. I didn’t follow that path straighway. I went to do courses such as Networking, Server Management, and Database Management for a year and a half. I luckily got a job at a hospital which worked mostly on digital systems,” recalls Sanyang.



Since then, she has gone on to climb the corporate ladder to the role she is currently in, which required additional study, from her initial certificate courses.



Her work has allowed unique exposure to not just the highest levels of the technology industry in The Gambia but the difficulties of being a career woman in her society, particularly at her age.



“Professional women in this part of the world must be at their best both within the household, and the work environment, whilst our male colleagues do not. This obviously gives them an advantage because, as women are struggling to hit their 10,000 hours because of other commitments and constraints, men are advancing up the career ladder. My job, for example, gives me access to men operating at the highest levels of both the public and private sector.



“As I am frequently the only female (also the youngest person) in the room, they are often shocked to see a 25-year-old woman taking the lead. So during interactions, one may get comments like ‘you are pretty good for a girl’ or ‘what is a girl like you doing in tech?’ Luckily for me, I have a strong supportive team that ensures I remain safe,” she says.



For Sanyang, young women in The Gambia’s technology industry have a myriad of barriers to overcome, many of them set in the way of thinking within the country’s cultural context.



“A lot of women never make it to the top of the tech field in The Gambia. This is not always due to the lack of talent or commitment, but mostly down to the patriarchal society we are in. Often when we get married or have children, as women, we are expected to stay home and care for the family. It is often a huge challenge to get back as there is no support from government, family etc to return to the field,” she explains.



This doesn’t mean that these obstacles can’t be overcome. Dr Jorjoh Ndure-Tambedou, a feted leader in the Gambian technology ecosystem, is the CEO of InSIST Global and one of the founders of Afrijula, a digital financial tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:37% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="724" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-724x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55866 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-724x1024.png 724w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-212x300.png 212w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40.png 738w" sizes="(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
“As I am frequently the only female (also the youngest person) in the room, they are often shocked to see a 25-year-old woman taking the lead. So during interactions, one may get comments like ‘you are pretty good for a girl’ or ‘what is a girl like you doing in tech?’ ” – Jankeh Sanyang
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For her, the challenge of being a mother in the industry was met by supportive leadership which she is now extending to her own staff.



“A common challenge most women face is having a work/life balance, especially mothers. I was fortunate enough as my predecessor was very supportive and I had some flexibility allowing me to be able to work from home when necessary. Returning to work after maternity leave can be quite challenging for some, and as a result we now have a crèche facility for staff. This is a first in The Gambia and we hope that other institutions can follow suit. Having experienced these challenges in previous roles, I am now in a position to support women by providing the environment to make the transition easier.”



Echoing Lowe-Khan’s view of the country’s technology, Ndure- Tambedou is hopeful that more women will follow suit as they see more leaders like herself in top positions in the industry.



She believes that conformity to Gambian cultural norms may be the enemy of progress for the sector.



Instead, she advocates a bolder approach, encouraging women to be who they were born to be.



“As women we do not have anything to prove to anyone, just be yourself, do what you know how to do and be prepared to ask for guidance should you need any. I would strongly encourage more women to work in the industry. I find it quite fulfilling as I can see the tangible value of what I am doing for the very people they are intended for, Africans!”

Black Student Girl Holding Laptop Computer Standing On Pink Background

TECH QUEENS CHANGING THE MINDSET IN GAMBIA

Staying out of the socio-cultural fray is no longer an option for most brands and businesses. Can “safety” be a framework for when and how CEOs and CMOs should consider acting?



For the CEOs of the world’s largest companies, navigating when and how to enter cultural conversations, when and how to show solidarity, allyship and citizenship is fraught with real and perceived risk. The consequences of both action and inaction can be measured in an eco-system of reputational, economic and/or political impacts. The fear of alienating people, be they buyers, subscribers, employees, or shareholders en-masse, has long kept good people and good companies from doing more good things and standing up against more bad things. 



If we lived and marketed in <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/1176668064/pattern-i-could-really-use-some" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">precedented times</a>, this would all be easier, but we don’t. We live and market in times when the values-based divide between red and blue is so enormous that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-political-extremists-are-taking-this-country/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">civil war seems as likely as civil discourse</a>. The once-unthinkable is now entirely thinkable as most identity groups—from the historically under-represented to the historically privileged—feel as if they are under attack—despite the socio-cultural, economic, legislative, and electoral evidence making clear that some remain far more so than others, and that not all perception is reality.



Today, brands are boycotted for pushing back against hate; for advocating for equity and inclusion; for doing and saying things that not so long ago would have seemed reasonable and right but, now, don’t. Making decisions about when to act and when not to is a calculus that, for CEOs and the CMOs who help them steward these brands and businesses, fraught with political and bottom-line considerations, as, no matter one’s heart or values, fiduciary duty calls. In fact, according to a recent survey, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/07/20/less-than-10-of-companies-commented-publicly-on-roe-v-wade-decision-poll-finds/amp/">fewer than 10% of US companies spoke out against the SCOTUS Roe reversal</a>. But staying entirely out of the cultural fray is no longer an option, no matter the risks, as people—whether buyers, employees, partners or vendors—are <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-more-companies-are-standing-up-on-social-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increasingly looking to businesses</a> to address social issues, having <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lost trust</a>in government’s ability to do same.



These growing expectations require a new level of corporate accountability and transparency to an ecosystem of stakeholders, not just shareholders. And as CEOs from across the globe watched as Bob Chapek was publicly pilloried both for what he, at first, didn’t do by remaining silent on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and then by Florida’s lawmakers who threatened massive economic consequences when he spoke out in support of ABC, they got scared.



So, how do you decide when and how to step in without, as Sarah Kate Ellis, the long-time President of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.glaad.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GLAAD</a>, an organization dedicated to accelerating change for the LGBTQ community, calls it, “sticking your neck out.”



While the work Ellis and GLAAD do focuses on the LGBTQ community specifically, she has a simple framework for determining when and why to get involved that has application to other communities as readily. The simple construct occurred to her at at The World Economic Forum in Davos this past May, as she listened to the assembled consider how to mitigate the risks of doing and saying something that needs to be done and said despite ramifications. Her very simple framework? Act when the safety of others is at risk.



“Companies and CEOs are having to speak up constantly on social issues,” she says, “and I was trying to think about how we could shift the narrative from isolated issues—LGBTQ+ rights, guns, Roe—and wondering what kind of framework we could build that is rooted in fact, and depoliticizes issues that (have been) wrongly politicized. These are not political issues, they impact the safety, health and well-being of humans across the board.”



The premise is great, but how exactly does one appeal to humans across the board when the pieces on the board are more akin to chess pieces battling than disparate parts of one whole?



To Ellis, it begins with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs</a>. “If you look at Maslow, ‘safety’ is foundational,” she reasons. “So, the framework should be simple and factual: it’s all about people’s safety. Safety in schools, safety at work, safety for women, safety for the LGBTQ community. Safety for the under-represented. You’re either for safety or against it.”



Who could reasonably be against safety? Well, at a time when&nbsp;<a href="https://leafgroup.zoom.us/j/84570240131" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">7% of Americans</a>&nbsp;believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows, anything’s possible. As Ellis points out, “there is a fringe that will always be fringe and you can’t argue with them, but you can have a stance and a framework that is for good and for all.”



But even “safety” can be subjective. When asked what she’d say to those would argue for the safety of the unborn child, she admits, “There’s no perfect framework. But CEOs are having to speak up all the time on one or another social issue and it’s a race on narrative. You’ve said you support us, you market to us, you have some policies and procedures, but what are you doing in the public sphere when the rubber hits the road? We think ‘safety’ lets them get ahead of issues and creates a decision tree that can help them do the right thing when the right thing seems hard.”



For businesses, no matter what or whom you ally with or against there will be those who love you for it and those who don’t. This has always been true — it’s just more so now, with no signs on the horizon that it will become less so moving forward. Employee, consumer, shareholder and stakeholder activism and expectations all but mandates corporate action, accountability and transparency in ways heretofore unconsidered. And this is true regardless of whether you fall on Hobby Lobby’s side of the conversation or Patagonia’s.



Ellis is, of course, right. No perfect framework for this exists in these particularly imperfect times. And as much as she thinks this is a framework for any one CEO, her bigger hope is that it becomes a framework for a coalition of them. “The biggest thing is CEOs going in together and sign[ing] some sort of shared declaration,” she says. “‘We believe in the safety of our employees and customers. This is where we stand, and we will act in support of (it) whenever it is challenged.’”&nbsp;



Ensuring social, cultural, and economic safety seems a reasonable bar for businesses to hurdle. After all, if you can’t stand resolutely for the safety of those you work with, sell to, and seek to serve, what exactly can you stand for?



By Seth Matlins, Forbes Staff

Young businesswoman walking with digital tablet at coworking

A Framework For CEOs And CMOs On When And How To Enter The Cultural Conversation

Tobi Amusan’s gold at the recent World Athletics Championships was a win not just for Nigeria but for Africa, says the 25-year-old.



For years, Nigerian-born Oluwatobiloba Amusan considered herself as the “almost girl”. She placed fourth at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019 and fourth again at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.



So, when on July 24 this year, she smashed the 100-meter women’s hurdles world record with an outstanding 12.12 seconds in the semi-finals and 12.06 for the finals, the ‘almost girl’ finally bagged a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in the United States becoming the first world champion from Nigeria.



“I thank God for his blessing and for finally giving me the strength to come first place. I feel like this is a win not only for myself but also for Nigeria and Africa,” says Amusan.



She beat former record-holder Kendra Harrison’s 2016 record of 12.20 by 0.8 of a second.



“It was very competitive so the goal was to execute and survive to the finals and I thank God for keeping me healthy throughout the process,” says Amusan to FORBES AFRICA.



The 25-year-old sprinter was born in Ogun State in the Western part of Nigeria. She began her sports career as a soccer player until her coach decided she had a lot more potential for the track.



“I ended up beating all the best people in the team and that’s how I found my calling.”



That calling took her to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) where she held several titles including the 60-meter indoor record, the 200-meter indoor record, the 100-meter hurdles as well as the 200-meter flat record.



In a statement conveyed by the special advisor to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Amusan’s win: “The President joins millions of Nigerians in celebrating this outstanding feat by a compatriot and two-time African Games champion, who in one night stunned the athletics world with her superlative and stellar performance. The President thanks the track superstar for making the Nigerian national anthem resonate again from the international podium, leaving the nation with the excitement and unforgettable memories of tears of joy and triumph; hope and victory; incredulity and belief.”

World Athletics Championships Oregon22 – Day Ten

Nigerian Sprinter On Smashing Records In Stunning Feat At Oregon

The resignation of Glossier CEO Emily Weiss inspired another wave of obituaries for young, female founders. Nevertheless, they persist—and refuse to be put on glass pedestals again.



In October 2021, Rent the Runway cofounder Jennifer Hyman took her 12-year-old subscription fashion company public at a $1.7 billion valuation, valuing her 5.1% stake at nearly $49 million. The 41-year-old CEO was one of only about 25 American women in history to go public with a company she had founded. But Rent the Runway’s IPO was even more unusual for not only having a female founder but also a female CFO and a female COO.



Hyman celebrated the moment on a flowery Nasdaq podium surrounded by the key women on her team, her two daughters and a shower of pink confetti. But for all the femininity on stage, there is one word that Hyman would not use to mark the moment: “Girlboss.”



Making History and Bank: In October 2021, Rent the Runway became the first company to go public with a female CEO, COO and CFO—at a $1.7 billion valuation.RENT THE RUNWAY



“We&#8217;ve created a false narrative because we looked at two or three examples of women who were building businesses who happen to have a high social media following, and we call it a Girlboss Era,” Hyman says. “The Girlboss Era has never existed.”



Except it did.



The now dreaded hashtag dates to 2014, when then-30-year-old Sophia Amoruso, founder of the retail brand Nasty Gal, published a memoir called&nbsp;#Girlboss. In eight years, Amoruso had grown Nasty Gal from an eBay startup into a business with $40 million in funding, customers in 60 countries and a brick-and-mortar store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The book spent 18 weeks on the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;bestseller list and propelled Amoruso to launch Girlboss Radio, a podcast featuring interviews with other female founders.



Leaning Out: After eight years of running the beauty brand she founded, Emily Weiss stepped down as CEO of Glossier in May amid turmoil.JOEL BARHAMAND



The Girlboss phenomenon is on Hyman’s mind because in late May, 37-year-old Glossier founder Emily Weiss announced that she was stepping down as CEO from the company she launched in 2014 and, after a maternity leave, becoming executive chairman. Weiss’ beauty business was growing into a $1.8 billion makeup juggernaut at the same time “Girlboss” was expanding in the public discourse.



It was around this same period that J.Crew included Ty Haney’s two-year-old athleisure company, Outdoor Voices, in a ‘brands we love’ feature. Haney opened OV’s first brick-and-mortar store in Austin in the fall of 2015. The then-27-year-old Haney would go on to raise more than $60 million for Outdoor Voices from investors including General Catalyst, GV, and former J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler.



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<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hashtagging-it-out">HASHTAGGING IT OUT</h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-since-sophia-amoruso-published-her-memoir-girlboss-in-2014-videos-with-that-hashtag-have-been-viewed-more-than-6-billion-times-on-tiktok-with-an-additional-26-million-posts-on-instagram-girlboss-has-also-been-used-more-than-4-5-million-times-on-twitter-during-the-past-8-years-with-about-half-of-that-coming-in-2021-just-as-some-of-the-more-prominent-female-founders-were-being-canceled">Since Sophia Amoruso published her memoir, #Girlboss, in 2014, videos with that hashtag have been viewed more than 6 billion times on TikTok with an additional 26 million posts on Instagram. #Girlboss has also been used more than 4.5 million times on Twitter during the past 8 years, with about half of that coming in 2021—just as some of the more prominent female founders were being canceled.</h4>



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That same year, two former Warby Parker prodigies, Steph Korey and Jen Rubio, founded Away, the smart-luggage company that eventually landed Korey on the cover of&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in November 2018 with a $1.4 billion valuation by 2019. And a year after Away was born, Audrey Gelman launched The Wing, a female-only coworking space that offered an A-List roster of speakers (including Christiane Amanpour and Hillary Clinton) for Wing members to enjoy after business hours. Ambitious women paid up to $2,700 a year for access to the Wing, and the buzzy brand hit a $400 million valuation before the pandemic took hold in 2020.



With such meteoric success stories, each of these women was soon hailed as a “Girlboss”—which often came with the benefits of being young, attractive and white. And when their high-flying brands fell back to earth over the next few years, the schadenfreude was relentless. A Netflix show called&nbsp;#GIRLBOSS&nbsp;was not enough to buoy Amoruso’s Nasty Gal brand; in 2016, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was purchased the next year by The Boohoo Group for $20 million, a fraction of its peak valuation of $86 million in 2014, according to PitchBook.



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“It&#8217;s reminding everyone that there is a style of being a boss. And no matter how hard you work, you&#8217;re still a girl—you&#8217;re a girl in a man&#8217;s world.”–Kristen Syrett, Rutgers professor



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At Outdoor Voices, Haney found her leadership capabilities under fire in early 2020, with colleagues whispering to reporters that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/business/outdoor-voices-ty-haney-mickey-drexler.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">she was “spoiled and mercurial</a>.” By March of that year, Haney was pushed out of the company she founded. During the same period, Korey and Gelman also found their leadership styles pilloried in the media and by the peak of the pandemic in 2020, both women had resigned as CEO of their respective companies.



By the time Weiss stepped down as Glossier’s CEO in May, obituaries for the Girlboss Era had been written for at least two years. Yet the resignation of Weiss, who had been the face of one of the trendiest millennial companies, provided new fodder for commentary and conclusions about what it means when a female founder moves away from the brand she built. But working female entrepreneurs say these post-mortems are both sexist and unfair to the women who are still running disruptive, high-growth businesses.



“When a female founder steps down, it’s a headline like The Death of the Girlboss,” says Laura Behrens Wu, who was featured on the 2017 Forbes&nbsp;30 Under 30 for founding logistics outfit Shippo. “When a guy does it? There’s no real headline because it happens so frequently that it’s no big deal.” Wu points to 41-year old Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Peterson,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2022/06/08/exclusive-amazons-consumer-chief-dave-clark-joins-supply-chain-startup-flexport-as-co-ceo/?sh=1a260af3e82e">who announced plans to resign from his CEO seat</a>&nbsp;soon after Weiss stepped down. But the news about Peterson didn’t launch 1000 thinkpieces about the future of male CEOs, Wu notes, whereas a deposed Girlboss “becomes an extrapolation about the entirety of female founders.”



While the Girlboss concept began under a guise of empowerment, it has ultimately been damaging, a Scarlet G, for female entrepreneurs. The condescending moniker diminished female founders seeking investors, who judged them not on the quality of their companies but by their gender.



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&#8220;The heyday of female founders or Girlbosses has actually made the situation more difficult because it clouds the reality that it&#8217;s as difficult as ever to raise money as a woman.”– Jennifer Hyman, Rent the Runway CEO and Cofounder



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“As soon as you modify something like ‘boss’—and you don&#8217;t have ‘Boyboss’ or ‘Maleboss’—it really does make it incredibly salient that we are still, as women, fighting against [an image] that was not shaped by us,” says Kristen Syrett, a professor of linguistics at Rutgers University. “It&#8217;s reminding everyone that there is a style of being a boss; that there&#8217;s being a boss and then there&#8217;s the girl boss. And no matter how hard you work, you&#8217;re still a girl—you&#8217;re a girl in a man&#8217;s world.”



In early June, no less an expert than Sophia Amoruso implored her Twitter followers: “please stop using girlboss thanks.”



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Amoruso might be ready to move on, but Rent the Runway’s Jen Hyman and the other founders interviewed by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;are left grappling with the wreckage of the GirlBoss Era.



“Sometimes, the positivity that the media has had about the heyday of female founders or Girlbosses has actually made the situation more difficult,” Hyman says, “because it clouds the reality that it&#8217;s as difficult as ever to raise money as a woman.”



Lilla Cosgrove is living that reality. In 2017, she cofounded the orthodontic aligner company Candid and set out to become&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2019/04/16/something-to-smile-about-candid-raises-63-million-to-be-the-warby-parker-of-braces/?sh=17ead9a4b256">the Warby Parker of braces</a>. Since then, Cosgrove has raised over $150 million. Like many CEOs over the past two years, she’s had to pivot her company, in this case from a direct-to-consumer brand to a business-to-business model selling retainers straight to dentists.&nbsp;“It’s hard being a human in the world right now with everything going on socially and economically, let alone being a founder,” the 31-year-old Cosgrove told&nbsp;Forbes, shortly before the Supreme Court ruled on&nbsp;Roe v. Wade. “And then being a female founder on top of that? Access to capital and support still feels harder than it should be.”



Indeed, only 2% of all venture capital goes to female founders, and just 0.2% of all venture funding goes to female founders of color, a rate that has barely budged in the four years since #MeToo and #TimesUp transformed the national dialog.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2022/06/06/female-entrepreneurs-funded-by-female-vcs-face-difficulties-obtaining-future-funds/?sh=3672e8c66a7c">recent study published in the Organization Science journal&nbsp;</a>showed that, among some 2,100 startups, the female-founded companies that received money from female investors in early funding rounds were&nbsp;less&nbsp;likely to receive funding in subsequent rounds. The researchers’ conclusion was that their early-stage capital was a token gesture based on shared gender, not a strategic investment in a promising idea.



According to Heidi Patel, a managing partner at Rethink Impact, the largest venture capital firm in the U.S. that invests exclusively in female leaders ($300 million under management), the term “Girlboss” is a byproduct of this environment. If investors wanted to feel confident writing a check to a female founder, funding someone with a high public profile was more of a vehicle aimed at raising personal brand awareness—and eventually capital. “It was something really unique to consumer businesses,” Patel says. “It was really a marketing angle and it&#8217;s an aspirational storyline, I think, that was created to appeal to young female consumers.”



Ty, Ty Again: Two years being ousted as CEO of Outdoor Voices, 33-year-old founder Ty Haney has a new web3 platform—Try Your Best.JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES



Emphasis on young: As the name implies, Girlboss was aimed at Millennials and Gen Z. By contrast, the top five women on the 2022 Forbes Richest Self-Made Women list are worth more than $30 billion and each was born before 1948 (average age: 60)—and none would self-identify as a Girlboss.



Interestingly, Outdoor Voices founder Haney insists she’s never actually been called a “Girlboss” or used the word self-referentially. “I’ve never been or associated myself with the term Girlboss and it’s time journalists stop trying to get clicks off our stories and this theme,” Haney wrote on Instagram after Weiss announced her resignation. As Haney&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUHH1nyHSKQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">admitted to&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in a 2021 interview</a>: “Being a female founder helped me. I was a darling in the press and that helped create a direct relationship with a budding community [of customers]. And from a fundraising perspective, it helped.”



The positive press that lifted Haney, and other female founders like her, also drew greater attention to her failings—creating a cycle that feeds the perception that “cancel culture” is eager to claim the next female leader who misspeaks or missteps.



It’s a vicious cycle many young, female founders CEOs are hoping to avoid. Eliza Becton, who was on the 2014 Forbes 30 Under 30 list after founding the smart water cooler company Bevi, has raised $95 million to bring internet-connected natural drink dispenser to 4,000 offices (and counting) in the United States. “I don’t like a lot of attention,” says the 38-year-old Becton. “I really enjoy what I do, and I like spending time with family, friends and customers,” says Becton, “But I prefer to be head down in the work and doing product development. It’s what makes me happy. I don’t love being public-facing, and frankly, I find it distracting.”



Alexa Hirschfeld is another entrepreneur who has seen these distractions and opted out. As the cofounder of digital stationery company Paperless Post, Hirschfeld oversees 100 employees and runs an entity that has attracted over 175 million users to its platform. Paperless Post is valued at a healthy $115 million, but like Becton, Hirschfeld isn’t looking to elevate her personal brand.



“I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘What am I going to do today as a woman in tech?’” she says. “I&#8217;m worrying about my product, the company, the job; I&#8217;m worrying about what everybody worries about who puts themself out there, and takes risks and has a lot of responsibilities.”



For Ashley Edwards, the founder of MindRight Health, the lessons of the Girlboss Era are painfully obvious, especially as a woman of color. The 31-year-old founder just closed a $1.8 million funding round from investors, including Melinda French Gates, to grow her mental health coaching platform for underserved teens. “I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished as a woman and as a Black woman,” says Edwards. “Most of my time is just spent doing the work.”



Laura Behrens Wu, whose Shippo hit a $1 billion valuation this month, agrees and believes she’s avoided many of the Girlboss minefields because she’s rejected most media–including social media.



“It’s not been a priority,” she says. “I haven&#8217;t been able to tie it to some kind of business priority, or something that I really care about as a CEO.”



Which is exactly the advice many older executives have for women in the post-Girlboss Era. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/anita-carmichael-roberts/?sh=741d7ab13e63">Anita Carmichael Roberts</a> is a military veteran, the founding partner of Silicon Hills Capital, and a member of the Forbes 50 Over 50 list, has never been burdened with the Girlboss mantel because of her age and race. Indeed, many in the business world wouldn’t even assume that a 53-year-old Black woman could be in charge of millions of dollars and investment decisions. “People don&#8217;t see us as the boss, right?” Roberts says. “When I say I&#8217;m a boss, that means that I&#8217;m the baddest thing in the room—women or men.”



By Maggie McGrath, Forbes Staff and Alexandra Sternlicht, Forbes Staff

Businesswoman on laptop at window in morning sun

Why Female Entrepreneurs Welcome The End Of The Girlboss Era—Once And For All

Having grown up as a conservative Northern Nigerian, it was ingrained in Fatima Babakura that at a certain age, inevitably, she would have to finish school and then get married “to someone rich who can take care of you”.



But Babakura was never going to let this happen.



“Living in Lagos gave me a different perspective because I was living around people whose mindset was ‘make your own money and then go to school’ so it’s not like you are waiting for someone to come and take care of you’,” Babakura tells FORBES AFRICA. “And because I was privileged enough to experience that, I am not your average Northern Nigerian girl.”



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Babakura is the founder, chief executive officer and designer of Timabee, an accessories brand that “redefines luxury in Africa and beyond”.



Her sharp eye for design, curiosity and yen for imagining a product and bringing it to life motivated her to start Timabee.



Babakura began the brand in her first year of university in Canada.



She had designed a “simple handbag” and given it to her close family friend as a gift.



“I didn’t even think it was that great,” she laughs. But continuing on with her theme to be “curious”, she set out to find a manufacturer who would make this bag.



“Keep in mind, I was an accounting student with no business or fashion background. I did a simple Google search which led me to Alibaba where I found a company that agreed to make me a sample for $150 in December 2013.”



From the pocket money she received from her parents, 17-year-old Babakura set out to spend the $150 which she ended up losing as “I interacted with a fraudulent vendor and had no clue”.



Losing the money did not stop her.



“I was determined to find someone else to make my bag, but this time I was a lot more careful and I did my due diligence researching the company.”



One of the biggest highlights for Timabee was in 2021, when the brand was approved by award-winning American artist and businesswoman, Beyoncé.



“Last year, when Beyoncé’s team compiled a list of black-owned businesses, we were honored to make the list. It just goes to show that as a small, growing brand, the work we put in every day does not go unnoticed.”



Having taken the pro-women approach when it comes to running her business, she wants to encourage many women, including those who may look like her, to feel empowered to start enterprises.



“Starting Timabee as a young girl, there were many mistakes I made as I did not seek out mentorship earlier on due to the fear of being rejected. I learned a lot through trial and error, many of which cost the company money and could have easily been avoided had I sought mentorship,” Babakura says. “This is a major reason why I have set up Timabee global resources, a concept aimed at helping entrepreneurs in the accessory business navigate their way to global recognition and achieve success. I truly believe in paying it forward and so in the next three years, I hope to open a mentoring school specifically for high school and university students where they can have hands-on experience on the business of fashion especially as it relates to Africa.



“Many girls from Northern Nigeria aspire to marry rich as a ‘career path’, sadly. I believe that through my mentorship program, the right mindset will be the foundation for future success especially since I will be an example to them through my achievements as a Northern girl.”



Words and Curation: Chanel Retief Art Director: Lucy Nkosi Additional Research &amp; Reporting: Lillian Roberts Photography: Ilan Godfrey for Forbes Videography and production: Timothy Pierson for Forbes &amp; Chad McClymonds for Forbes Video Editor: Chanel Retief Styling: Katlego Magano of Oak Ave; Assistant: Tumelo Nkwe Hair &amp; Makeup: SnehhOnline Beauty; Thapelo Letsebe Location: Image Lounge, Botswana and 2022 Forbes Under 30 Summit



<a href="https://shop.forbesafrica.com/product/single-digital-issue-june-july-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get your digital copy here</a>



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#FORBESAFRICA30UNDER30: Meet Cover Star FATIMA BABAKURA- ‘I am not your average Northern Nigerian girl’

We asked some of the top CMOs – all women from a cross-section of industries – for their sterling views.



The corner office is not just the prized preserve of the CEO. A new band of C-suite executives has emerged in the last two years of the pandemic with growing significance as any big company’s core arsenal to entrench ‘the new normal’. CIOs, CTOs and CMOs are the new rock stars changing the lexicon of business.



Marketing trends especially have seen drastic shifts over the last two years to find new ways to pandemic-proof businesses. According to Forbes, Chief Marketing Officers were tasked with much more than navigating their own companies out of the Covid-19 crisis. In these turbulent times, now more than ever, businesses are relying more on marketers and their new ways of retaining and increasing customers.



And what’s more heartening?



Women are front-runners in this area. In Forbes’ 2021 list of World’s Most Influential CMOs, the honorees included 28 women and 22 men. In Africa, we did our own compilation of female CMOs shifting the narrative and asked them about their success and strategies for 2022.



Alison Badenhorst, Chief Marketing Officer, Rand Merchant Bank 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Content and finding multi-dimensional ways of connecting with audiences have changed over time.”</blockquote>



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The CMO at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), Alison Badenhorst, always knew she was a creative soul with a yen for marketing, even while at university.



From Deutsche Bank in London to Standard Bank in South Africa and now RMB, Badenhorst says that though she started in sales, her intention was always to go into marketing.



She says that marketing sits at a very interesting intersection between business, audience, technology and enablement. Essentially, marketers are “very fortunate to have a very holistic view of what&#8217;s happening” as they are involved both externally and internally.



“It allows us to hold up the mirror to business, sometimes in terms of some of the research and the insights we can bring, and then off the back end of that, provide relevant solutions.”



She agrees that the pandemic accelerated the development and adoption of technology.



“I think while it&#8217;s always been there, the technology and data are definitely transforming our industry and how we market and how we connect with our audiences. Content and finding multi-dimensional ways of connecting with audiences have changed over time.



 “And being able to tailor much more personalized content and experiences, whether it&#8217;s in the format of a podcast, or whether it&#8217;s through a virtual event, I think that data and then bringing that intersection of the various touchpoints together that are going to be meaningful and value-adding to our clients, is going to be really important.”



Candice Fangueiro, Head of Content, Showmax Africa



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Remember the time you loved a movie, and you got your favorite DVD or VHS tape from places like Look &amp; Listen or Musica, or even rented it out from Mr Video? Candice Fangueiro started her career as a marketing assistant for such companies and is now the Head of Content at one of Africa’s biggest online streaming platforms, Showmax Africa.



“I thoroughly enjoyed working in the home entertainment space. I was also very fortunate to work with 20th Century Fox in Sweden at their studios, when they needed someone,” Fangueiro tells FORBES AFRICA. “I went over for three months and learned a lot from the Nordic team, and how they do things in the home entertainment space. I then came back to South Africa and realized that DVDs are on the decline.”



Fangueiro was hired at Showmax to bring international content, but the big buzzword when she began was “originals” – all the rage also with competing platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. And with Disney Plus finding its way to South Africa mid this year, the need for original content has never been greater.



“That was when we kicked off with Tali’s Wedding Diary as our first Showmax original. And it was a great success, a great marketing campaign coupled with a really fun take on a new series, and that kind of launched us. And off the back of that success, we knew this is the way we needed to go. And we needed to focus on our content creation, as opposed to just acquisition.”



Since then, Showmax has launched a number of originals such as the telenovela series, The Wife, reality shows such as The Real Housewives of Durban, Temptation Island South Africa, Life With Kelly Khumalo and docuseries such as Devilsdorp.



“I think now more than ever, you know, Africa&#8217;s on that global stage, and if anything, we&#8217;ve seen that there&#8217;s such a hunger and a demand for African content.”



Since Covid-19, Fangueiro has noted this need also because the concept of “time is precious” has become a key factor in consumer lives, and marketers and content creators need to consistently churn out “content worth their time”.



“I think, for me as a content creator, this is something we&#8217;ve had even before the pandemic and that’s looking at ‘is my content worth your data’?” Fangueiro says. “People are going to pick what they want to do and choose to do with their time. You hop on to social media, and people are giving their time to social media, they are now engaging with content via short-form rather than long-form; Instagram reels, TikTok videos, YouTube shorts; there&#8217;s just so much content that is out there.



“And so we need to be very careful in identifying what we want to do and what we want to produce to make sure that when people choose what they want to do with their time, they&#8217;re choosing to come to our platform.”



Daniele Joubert, Eater Growth Lead at Uber Eats and Co-chair Women @ Uber SSA



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New age marketing requires new age thinking. From studying Industrial Engineering at Stellenbosch University in South Africa to becoming part of a team that was created only in 2020 specializing in performance marketing in client experience on Uber Eats, Daniele Joubert has come a long way. Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery application launched by e-hailing company, Uber, in 2014. What’s the experience like?



Q. Please describe the work you and your team do at Uber Eats?



My team and I look after everything from a campaign perspective that happens on the app, anything Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that we send out locally – working with regional teams on what they send out, and with global teams on what they look at. So, everything from consumer engagement through owned channels. And the second thing that we actually look at is non-owned channels. So, any marketing that could be like flyering (distributing flyers). Or we also have currently had umbrellas on stands at Camps Bay in Cape Town. So if you lie on the beach, it touches on awareness and consideration. But a very key focus is how do we really measure the top-line business impact of that, and we also look after partnerships.



Q. Do you think people in the marketing space, such as yourself, whose core focus is to drive traffic back into business are the new frontiers of business?



I want to say yes. But I also realize that we can&#8217;t do it ourselves. Like we can&#8217;t do it alone. I think one of the things that I&#8217;ve just realized is that you need the forest and the trees. Yes, we can say we&#8217;re the new frontier, but you need to have all sides of a company collaboratively working together. Because if I don&#8217;t have a product, and if I don&#8217;t have a product team that delivers the best freakin’ product in the world, I can stand on my ears; I can shout and that&#8217;s the biggest thing with coming from experience. In the past, I actually think it was easier to have a brand perception market, like who you are, clients are locked into you because it&#8217;s hard to move. These days, consumers are picky, and they can move very quickly.



Lindi Davids, Marketing Director, Viu



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I ran smaller influencer campaigns at various places that have worked.”</blockquote>



Davids’ parents did not want to pay for her to get a degree in filmmaking.



“I was like ‘fine, I&#8217;ll do what I need to do’. And I did politics. And then told myself that I was going to become a documentary filmmaker; you know that usual dream that you have when you are 18 or 19 years old.”



Through internships at big production companies or channels like CNN and Disney Channel, Davids somehow found herself surrounded by “marketing gurus”. So when you mix someone who has a love for television production and marketing together, you get Lindi Davids, now the Marketing Director at Viu, a Hong Kong-based over-the-top (OTT) video streaming provider.



Responsible for Viu South Africa&#8217;s overall marketing and communications strategy, as a marketing novice, Davids has seen a big change in the way marketing is being done now; from on-the-ground activations to primarily activating campaigns or products in the digital space. But what has not changed is the way marketers should have access to information.



“Intel is extremely important, as you know especially in Africa, it&#8217;s the one thing that I have learned,” Davids tells FORBES AFRICA. “You can have as many digital specs as you like, but if a person can&#8217;t feel the brand, does not see it at the spaza shop, or when they go down the road, if they don&#8217;t see it at a taxi rank, if they don&#8217;t have word of mouth, you can throw a banner at them as many times as you like, and you can stalk them online. But if they do not trust your brand, they&#8217;re not going to click on the banner, or they may, but they&#8217;re not going to put their credit card details into the basic payment information portal.”



Part of this is also relying on influencers, but not only the likes of big names such as Bonang Matheba or Mihlali Ndamase (although they do play a massive part in driving traffic), Davids believes that micro-influencers play just as important a role in connecting the product to the consumer.



“The proof is in the pudding. I&#8217;ve definitely seen it. I ran smaller influencer campaigns at various places that have worked.” Davids explains. “It&#8217;s great to have that word of mouth rather than big influencers telling you they are going to be somewhere but I have not seen that really in a big way converted in the numbers that I need.



“Where I&#8217;m really seeing a difference is the person that you really follow. The person that you really trust on your Instagram feed or your YouTube feed. It&#8217;s those people you can rely on.”



Tish Haridass, Content Marketing Manager, Yoco



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After graduating from Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Haridass started off as a copywriter before having to oversee the production of brand content across platforms at Yoco. Yoco is an African technology company that specializes in selling card machines and in online payments. As its content marketing manager, Haridass facilitates the ongoing evolution of Yoco&#8217;s content strategy and works closely with channel owners and area marketing managers (social media, events, collaborations) to grow the Yoco presence in the small business industry.



Q. How did you find bringing the world of digital marketing into the fintech space?



I guess what had been interesting about coming up through agencies or coming up through consulting and freelancing, over the eight years before I got to Yoco, is that I had worked for every imaginable possible client. In one day, I would go from writing about beer to writing about how-to-become-a-pilot. Literally, there&#8217;s this expansive list of clients. But one of the great things about Yoco at the time is we were still quite a small company, this is the beginning of 2020. And, because sort of everyone in our workforce was new to fintech, it&#8217;s very difficult to hire people in this industry and make it a requirement that they understand the industry. So, it felt like everybody was in the same boat and kind of learning as we went. And so to that end, it made the process so much easier.



Q. With the rise of digital, especially, it has helped build this content creation and marketing sphere that we live in now. But coupled with Covid-19, what are some of the marketing trends for 2022?



I think one of the things that we&#8217;re really taking on board internally is we have to be honest about where South Africa is in terms of access, in terms of the content that people can actually receive and engage with. I think marketing teams, especially those of us that work in the city and that work for bigger companies, can start to produce things for an audience that is technologically quite far ahead, actually, of where the majority of South Africa is. So, it&#8217;s all very well for me to say 32-second video clips, TikTok style, is going to be the trend of 2022. But internally, we stopped for a moment and have [realized] our target market is actually outside of the urban areas and are possibly not using the smartphones that we think that they&#8217;re using. They may not have access to the internet the way that we imagine they do. And we need to build trends that are aligned to them rather than look at trends that are aligned to content and platforms. We have taken a back-to-the-basics approach by looking at some of the things that have performed the best for us over the last two years of pandemic living; that have been really what I would have considered being the basics of content. So, that&#8217;s where we are prioritizing our focus, specifically to reach people who are largely just not addressed by other marketing companies.

What is the Marketing Mantra That Will Define 2022 For Africa

Miss out on this years #LWS2022? Catch all the In The Spotlight segments, Panel discussions and One-on-One talks now available. 



For seven years, FORBES WOMAN AFRICA’s Leading Women Summit has created powerful connections and communities. The theme for 2022 is Resetting Everything: The New Face of Leadership. Renuka Methil, Managing Editor, FORBES AFRICA and FORBES WOMAN AFRICA gives her welcoming address to this 2-day Virtual Summit, crossing multiple time zones as one collective audience.



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<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">A New Lens on Innovation for African Women Leaders</h2>



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Women control $126TN of global wealth, and yet, financial services aren’t meeting their needs. The Covid-19 Pandemic has also had a far-reaching impact on African women over the past two years. Mastercard spearheads the Women By Design program to create possibilities in a world that works better for women. CNBC Africa anchor Fiona Muthoni speaks to Beatrice Cornacchia, Senior Vice President, Marketing &amp; Communications, EEMEA: Mastercard



<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-relationships-in-a-pandemic-world">The Future of Relationships in a Pandemic World</h2>



CNBC Africa Anchor Tania Habimana, moderates this discussion with Chido Cleopatra Mpemba, AU&#8217;s Special Envoy on Youth; Neema Iyer, Founder &amp; Executive Director, Pollicy: Uganda and Joy Des Fountain, Founder, myFanPark.SHOW LESS



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The fully-virtual summit is available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW6nIAms_84wrHda6QMIA38G2tYhbCJ_Y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>

Category: Woman

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

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