Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Africa
Conference, Harvard University, October 1-2, 2020
Context
Studies investigating the dynamics of gender inequality and growth in Africa have tended to approach
the subject from the angle of human development and labor force participation. The majority of thesestudies have concluded that increasing female enrollment rates and reducing educational gender gaps
are growth enhancing. In the past decade we have seen growth in a new body of work that focuses on
female entrepreneurship and female-owned or managed businesses in Africa. One of the key studies
that drew attention to this important trend was the 2008 report by the World Bank, Doing Business:
Women in Africa.1 The report, inter alia, noted that the three countries with the highest percentage ofwomen entrepreneurs were Ghana (44%), Cape Verde (43%), and Rwanda (41%). These patterns areconfirmed by a more recent study on developing countries more broadly, the Mastercard Index of Women
Entrepreneurs (2018), which also noted that countries with the highest number of female entrepreneurs
included Ghana, Uganda, Bangladesh and Vietnam.2 The report comments that Ghana far outstrips all
its peers with the highest percentage of women business owners (46%). This speaks to a long history offemale entrepreneurship in Ghana.3 Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of female
entrepreneurs globally with approximately 26% of female adults involved in entrepreneurial activity.
Roland Berger’s Women in Africa Entrepreneurship Study (2018) noted that female entrepreneurs
contributed between US$250 billion and US$300 billion to African economic growth in 2016, equivalent
to about 13% of the continent’s GDP.4 According to McKinsey, the female economy is the world’s largest
emerging market with the potential to add US$12 trillion to global GDP by 2025.
Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent studies also pointed to the huge obstacles
women entrepreneurs in Africa face: from adverse social and cultural norms to a US$42 billion financing
gap, though women operate over 40% of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. COVID19 has simultaneously presented a global health pandemic and an economic recession; shutdowns andstay-at-home directives have had consequential economic impact, and a lack of economic security
threatens adverse healthcare outcomes. Across Africa, the promises of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
have not yet been fully realized, and the continent is heading towards its first recession in 25 years. The
World Bank estimated “COVID-19 will cost the region between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses
for 2020.” The African Union recently reported that 20 million African jobs are at threat from the pandemic,
with a disproportionate impact on women and youth employment. The global pandemic threatens tofurther exacerbate gender gaps in education, financing, and other socioeconomic outcomes.
Conference Organizers
In the light of the above, this conference on “Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship inAfrica” could not have come at a more opportune time. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, there
remains promise in the business context marked by the implementation of the African Continental Free
1

World Bank: Doing Business: Women in Africa - https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/thematicreports/women-in-africa (April 2008)
2
Mastercard: Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2018 - https://newsroom.mastercard.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/03/MIWE_2018_Final_Report.pdf
3See for example, Claire E. Robertson, Sharing the Same Bowl: A Socio-economic History of Women and Classin Accra, Ghana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984).
4
Roland Berger: Women in Africa Entrepreneurship Study - https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Publications/AfricaFirst-female-entrepreneurs-in-the-high-tech-sector-as-new-role-models.html (September 2018)

Harvard University | Center for African Studies
1280 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138t +1 (617) 495 - 5265 | e africa@harvard.edu
w africa.harvard.edu

Trade Area (AfCFTA), the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries. With a potential toincrease Africa’s economic outputs by US$29 trillion by 2050, and an estimated US$4.2 trillion businessto-business, the AfCFTA carries enormous opportunities for women entrepreneurs, including in large
scale and innovative business5. While COVID-19 has caused disruptions to global supply chains and toexisting workflows and ways of doing business, the pandemic may also present and opportunity tostimulate local manufacturing, rethink supply chains domestically and intra-Africa, and reimagine theworkspace. Female-owned and operated businesses have been proven leaders and innovators indeveloping and implementing agile business solutions from adopting new business models toimplementing e-commerce and digital payment solutions in response to COVID-19. Capturing thethoughts and responses of Africa’s leading female entrepreneurs in response to the COVID-19 crisis willserve to inform the scholarship at Harvard and the policy decisions undertaken by governments, NGOs,and other funders.
The conference panels (see below) push against the grain of the received literature by highlighting theplace of female entrepreneurs not just in the formal economy but operating large-scale and pioneering
innovative businesses. This will challenge the mainstream narrative on African female entrepreneurs
operating largely in the informal sector and in small and medium scale enterprises. It is critical tounderstanding this changing face of female entrepreneurship and the related policy implications. The
conference will also explore the need for business agility in the face of rapidly evolving national policies
to combat COVID-19, with an eye towards the actions and frameworks that will need to be developed toenter a post-COVID recovery and growth period. A collaboration between Harvard University’s Center
for African Studies, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Lionesses of Africa, the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and Standard Bank, the conference brings into partnershipa leading research university, a major policy institution of the United Nations, a major network of women
entrepreneurs in Africa, one of the most important stock exchanges in the world, and a leading Africanbanking group. Over two days, the deliberations of the conference seek to provide a clearer
understanding of the landscape of female entrepreneurship on the continent, identify challenges andopportunities, examine policy frameworks, and define policy actions that would position African women,
leaders in global female entrepreneurship, to play a transformative role in the world’s largest emerging
market.
The organizers of this conference bring considerable in-house knowledge to this event. Harvard
University has several distinguished faculty members across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Law
School, the Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government, who work on female
entrepreneurship in Africa, and the Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health, where research is informing Africa’s healthcare response to COVID-19. Faculty across theuniversity are working at the interface of the health pandemic and economic outcomes, recognizing themajor implications for Africa, a vast continent with poor physical and health infrastructure, where COVID19 and the economy may have to co-exist much longer than in other parts of the world. The London Stock
Exchange Group in addition to its Companies to Inspire Africa Reports, the latest one from 2019, runs
the FTSE Women on Boards Leadership Index. The Reports showcase women-owned and women-run
businesses, and the Index contributes to gender diversity by creating awareness of how companies withgender diversity perform better. Only 14% of board members in Africa are women.6 Several studies on5

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), 2019
CDC: Partnership will bring exceptional female talent to boards and investment committees across the continent- https://www.cdcgroup.com/en/news-insight/news/cdc-backs-theboardroom-africa-with-1-6m-funding-to-increasewomens-representation-in-african-boardrooms/ (January 2019).
6Harvard University | Center for African Studies
1280 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138
t +1 (617) 495 - 5265 | e africa@harvard.edu
w africa.harvard.edu

how to strengthen women entrepreneurship in Africa call for networks that support women entrepreneurs.
Perhaps, there is no more outstanding network of women entrepreneurs on the continent than theLionesses of Africa with its 1 million+ affiliated women entrepreneurs. Lionesses of Africa is a social
enterprise that builds and delivers entrepreneur development programs, mentoring programs, businesstools, digital media channels, community platforms, networking events, and information resources. TheUNECA through its Africa Centre for Gender seeks to address gender inequality and women’sempowerment through producing researches, developing tools and providing evidence for policy
formulation and implementation. The Africa Centre for Gender produces the Africa Women’s Report(AWR) and policy research on various women’s empowerment issues, including women’sentrepreneurship. Its 2019 AWR focuses on “Digital Finance: A Pathway to Women’s EconomicEmpowerment.” It has also developed the African Gender and Development Index, which measuresprogress in the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa. ECA has built poolsof experts and coalitions of women’s human rights advocates, whose contributions have been
instrumental to women’s economic empowerment. Furthermore, ECA and its partners through its African
Women Leadership Fund aim to create a sustainable platform that promotes the growth of women-owned
and operated business across the continent. UNECA has been at the forefront of the continent’s
economic response to COVID-19, recognizing that the pandemic could leave 29 million Africans inextreme poverty and slow GDP growth by up to 2.6%. The Standard Bank Group is a leading financial
institution that offers banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, institutions andcorporations in Africa and abroad. It has a long track record of supporting the growth of entrepreneurson the continent, and specifically, for helping to empower women entrepreneurs to fulfill their businessgrowth potential. Standard Bank has been a strategic partner of Lionesses of Africa for many years acrossthe African continent, supporting networking, communication, educational and developmental
programmes that empower women entrepreneurs.
Conference Agenda
The conference will feature four panels over two days with a keynote speaker on each day. Theconference program will outline the key issues for each panel and provide a case study. Moderators foreach panel will guide the discussion with the panelists, fielding general and specific questions topanelists, and then opening up to include audience participation.
Panel One (Plenary Session): Women Entrepreneurs, Business Agility, and Africa’s Massive Job
Creation Challenge. Here we seek to understand factors for the rise of high-growth women
entrepreneurs, pathways that can facilitate their international expansion, and how we can support thenext generation of high-growth entrepreneurs. How has the landscape been changed by COVID-19, andhow are women entrepreneurs adopting new ways of doing business? We also seek to correct theprevailing picture of African women enterprises as small or medium scale. In agriculture, digital,manufacturing, artisan enterprise, fashion, and services, Africa’s women entrepreneurs are creatinglarge-scale businesses. How do we support scale up, sustain, and replicate such large-scale endeavors
both in the present environment and as we look towards a post-pandemic economy?
Panel Two: Women Entrepreneurs, Value-added Commodity Processing, and Economic Diversification.
We seek to understand the trend of women entrepreneurs creating newer, more dynamic, and higher
value agro-products such as chocolate, beauty products, botanicals, teas, and coffees. African women
have entered into mining and have set up successful diamond cutting and polishing businesses. We havelong recognized the need for diversification in the commodities and natural resources sectors, and theCOVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the push for economic diversification, processing ofcommodities and raw materials, and industrialization.
Harvard University | Center for African Studies
1280 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138
t +1 (617) 495 - 5265 | e africa@harvard.edu
w africa.harvard.edu

Panel Three: The Digital Economy and Economic Growth for Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs. How do wesolve the connectivity gap and create opportunities for Africa’s women and girls to be part of a more
inclusive digital world? How do we provide access to digital technologies that allow Africa’s women tobenefit fully from the goods, services, and capital available across online markets? How do we leverage
emerging technologies and business models to remove longstanding barriers to women’s economic
opportunities in poor countries? What examples have arisen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic thatillustrate the embrace of new digital platforms, e-commerce, and mobile payment solutions?
Panel Four: Strengthening Institutional and Policy Frameworks, Funding, and Networks to Advance
Women Entrepreneurs. How can policy formulation promote and elevate women’s entrepreneurship asa priority for African economies? How do we overcome the funding gap? How can we design banking
products and offerings that African women entrepreneurs need? How do we strengthen corporate
governance and legal frameworks to guide women entrepreneurs to on the international scene? Whatnational responses to the economic impacts of COVID-19 have been successful in supporting women’s
entrepreneurship and getting funding to those who will most benefit?
Conference Outcomes
In addition to the conference report the organizers will produce a policy paper, which will also highlight
key facts and figures on women entrepreneurs with infographics on the sectors they are engaged in. The
conference organizers will also create an informal working group with a focus on research and policy.
The working group will share its research and policy recommendations with groups of women
entrepreneurs and through the respective UN bodies, the Africa Union, the African Development Bank,and the African Export-Import Bank.

Harvard University | Center for African Studies
1280 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138
t +1 (617) 495 - 5265 | e africa@harvard.edu
w africa.harvard.edu