Compared to their Western counterparts, African women are often denied the opportunity to freely share their opinions and experiences. As a consequence of the increase in education, African women are starting to feel more independent and welcome the opportunity to become more entrepreneurial.
Today, African women are no longer brushed aside, but recognized for the worth they bring to the business world. Several women have left their mark, but today I will only be writing about the best.
Read on to find out the top 10 female entrepreneurs in Africa:
1. Isabel Dos Santos
Isabel Dos Santos is a businesswoman from Angola and the eldest daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, a former president of Angola. She is a member of the corporate boards of many Angolan and Portuguese companies, as well as a news organization and major Portuguese banks that own gemstones and oil.
She launched her first company, the Miami Beach Club, one of Luanda Island’s first nightclubs and beach eateries, in 1997. Dos Santos made her foray into the global corporate sector in 1997, establishing assets and firms mostly overseas, but also in Angola, and investing heavily in well-known corporations, particularly in Portugal.
She has established several successful businesses over the years, including:
- Together with her mother, she established Trans Africa Investment Services, a Gibraltar-based vehicle for the diamond business
- Unitel International Holdings B.V., which was renamed Kento and Jadeium and was headquartered in Amsterdam. It served as a corporation vehicle for dos Santos’ telecom investment.
- Santoro Finance, which is the business entity for dos Santos’ investments in Lisbon-based Banco BPI and Amsterdam-based Esperaza Holding B.V., which deals with energy and oil.
- Condis, a Luanda-based retail company.
She also has shares in Banco Africano de Investimentos and Ciminvest, an Angolan cement company. She controls about 14% of the massive Portuguese media company Zon Multimedia. She also has substantial stakes in the energy business Energias de Portugal and the Portuguese bank Banco Esprito Santo and Banco Português de Investimento.
Despite her numerous achievements, there seems to be a lot of controversy concerning her family’s source of wealth. Forbes claims that there is no concrete proof of how she obtained her wealth because of the way the governing party conducts business in Angola. Several allegations were made against her, especially on account of corruption. Despite her many wrongdoings, Isabel was once the richest woman in Africa and a memorable businesswoman.
2. Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunsho stands tall as one of the greatest women in the history of Africa and currently the richest. She is both a businesswoman and a philanthropist.
She started her first business, Supreme Stitches, a clothing line that rebranded as The Rose of Sharon House of Fashion. She also launched Famfa Oil Limited, a leading oil and gas exploration and production company in Nigeria. She is currently the executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited and the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group.
By 2021, she had amassed more fortune than any other African woman becoming the richest woman in Africa. She has also been dubbed one of Forbes’ 100 most powerful women.
In addition to her exploits as an entrepreneur, she has also performed impressively as a humanitarian. To help support widows and orphans, Alakija established the Rose of Sharon Foundation, which awards grants and scholarships to businesses. Alakija has also granted a skills acquisition facility to Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech).
3. Wendy Appelbaum
Wendy Appelbaum is a philanthropist and entrepreneur from South Africa. She is the daughter of Liberty Group CEO Donald Gordon and has been in charge of the De Morgenzon wine estate in Stellenbosch since 2003.
She began her entrepreneurial career in 1994 when she cofounded the Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold). She was named the deputy chairman, but she quickly sold her share in the business when it became the first female-controlled firm to list on the JSE. She thereafter joined the boards of several additional businesses, including the Stellenbosch commercial wine vineyard De Morgenzon which she and her spouse purchased in 2003.
Appelbaum is well-known for her philanthropic works. In 2011, Appelbaum founded the Wendy Appelbaum Institute for Women’s Health. She is also a trustee of the Wendy Appelbaum Foundation and her father’s Donald Gordon Foundation. She belongs to the International Women’s Forum, the Helen Suzman Foundation, and Peggy Rockefeller’s Global Philanthropists’ Circle.
4. Irene Charnley
Irene Charnley is a South African entrepreneur and former trade unionist.
She started her career as a negotiator for South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers, where she spent 13 years overseeing several union operations divisions, Charnley first made her imprint on the African business sector. She then rose to the position of executive director of the MTN Group, the biggest cellular provider in Africa.
She founded the National Empowerment Consortium which consists of 50% black African workers and 50% black business owners. Eventually, they had a 35% stake in Johnnic Holdings, which is now known as Johnnic Communications.
She was named Businesswoman of the Year in August 2000 for her exceptional role in transforming Johnnic from an industrial behemoth into a cutting-edge media company focused on telecommunications. She was named one of “Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes in 2020. Charnley was also named one of the top 50 businesswomen outside of the United States.
At the moment, Charnley serves as the CEO of Smile Telecoms Holdings Ltd., a Pan-African telecommunications company headquartered in Mauritius that operates in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
5. Bridgette Radebe
Bridgetter Radebe is the sister of South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe and the First Lady of South Africa Tshepo Motsepe. She is a Tswana-born South African entrepreneur.
Her beginnings were humble, as she began her career as an ordinary miner, overseeing separate shaft mining operations and generating supplies for the bigger mine operations in South Africa while working under contract. She founded Mmakau Mining, a mining company that conducts explorations and contributes to the production of gold, platinum, and chrome.
Radebe is the president of the South African Mining Development Association. In addition, she is a member of the Sappi Board and the New Africa Mining Fund.
The Global Foundation for Democracy presented Radebe with the “International Businessperson of the Year Award” in May 2008. This award honors entrepreneurs who have contributed to the transformation of the political and natural environments.
6. Hajia Bola Shagaya
Nigerian entrepreneur and fashionista Hajia Bola Muinat Shagaya is among Africa’s wealthiest women. She is the founder and CEO of the conglomerate Bolmus Group International, which has assets in banking, real estate, oil and gas, and photography. She also serves as the managing director of Practoil Limited, one of Nigeria’s biggest importers and distributors of base oil.
Before entering the business world in 1983, she began her work with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s audit division. The importing and distribution of photographic goods marked the beginning of her entrepreneurial career. She brought the Konica brand of photography supplies to West Africa and Nigeria.
Despite her excellence, she faces great controversy and was once accused of money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC.
7. Stella Chinyelu Okoli
The popular Emzor Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company was founded by Stella Chinyelu Okoli in 1977. She currently serves as its CEO.
Stella Chinyelu Okoli is a pharmacist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Before launching Emzor Pharmaceutical, Stella Okoli worked for many pharmaceutical firms, such as Pharma-Deko, Boots the Chemists Limited, and Middlesex Hospital in London.
Originally formed as “Emzor Chemists Limited” in January 1977 as a modest pharmacy retail shop in Somolu, Lagos State, Emzor Pharmaceutical has evolved to become one of Nigeria’s top pharmaceutical firms, with more than 50 products since its incorporation in 1984.
Stella Okoli is the vice president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture as well as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. She has also held the positions of Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group. She is now a member of the Economic Summit of Nigeria and the Health Matters Advisory Board of Nigeria.
As a philanthropist, Stella Okoli started the Chike Okoli Foundation in 2006 as a non-profit organization to tackle poverty and illnesses by improving public awareness of cardiovascular diseases following the death of her son Chike Okoli in 2005. In addition, she serves as the director of the Chike Okoli Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
8. Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch
Salwa Idrissi is the wife of the current Moroccan Prime Minister, Aziz Akhannouch. She is the founder and president of Aksal Group, a holding firm that specializes in luxury products, department shops, and shopping malls.
She started her profession in 1993 by starting a business that distributed parquet and covering materials. She soon became an expert in franchising, and in 2004 she was awarded the Zara franchise for Morocco.
Half of the shares of the biggest retail center on the continent, Casablanca’s Morocco Mall, are owned by Aksal. She introduced Yan & One, her own cosmetics line, in October 2017. Additionally, her holding firm has the exclusive franchise rights to several well-known Moroccan brands, like as Zara, Banana Republic, Pull and Bear, and Gap1,2.
The Africa CEO Forum1, Jeune Afrique, and The Africa Report created a rating called “The 50 Influential Women in Business in Africa” in 2018, which placed her as the continent’s second most powerful entrepreneur.
9. Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is an Ethiopian entrepreneur who founded and serves as executive director of soleRebels, the “fastest-growing footwear company” in Africa. In addition to her efforts to change the conversation on poverty in Africa to focus on the continent’s entrepreneurial spirit, social capital, and economic potential, Bethlehem has won awards and recognition for her business acumen.
Bethlehem created “The Republic of Leather” to develop premium leather items that are sustainable and “Garden of Coffee” to market Ethiopian coffee.
Bethlehem established soleRebels in early 2005 to provide her neighborhood with occupations that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. Since many talented craftspeople in her little Zenebework hamlet were suffering from long-term unemployment, she wanted to highlight their abilities and provide job opportunities for others in her community. Recycled automobile tires are used to make the shoe soles. The business achieved great success and currently operates outlets in Taiwan, Singapore, Ethiopia, and Switzerland, among other places.
Bethlehem received the 2011 African Business Awards’ Outstanding African Business Woman award and was the first female African entrepreneur to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative.
10. Divine Ndhlukula
Dr. Divine Ndhlukula, a Zimbabwean businesswoman, is the founder and managing director of DDNS Security Operations (Pvt) Ltd, the holding company for SECURICO Security Services. Dr. Ndhlukula served as the chairperson of the Women’s Desk and the previous president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC).
She established the security firm Securico in Zimbabwe in 1998. She said in an interview that the motivation for founding Securico was to make a living, but more importantly, to transform the male-dominated security sector.
Additionally, she established Zvikomborero Farms, an agricultural business that engages in a range of farming operations.
Forbes named Dr. Divine Ndhlukula one of Africa’s most accomplished women. Dr. Ndhlukula was also included in the list of Africa’s top ten CEOs in August 2018.
Conclusion
African women have long been achieving greatness in the business world. The above 10 women have made a name for themselves in a world dominated by men, which proves that women are in no way inferior to men.
