By Josephine Agbonkhese
Leading Ladies Africa, a women-focused nonprofit and media organisation, held its Leadership by Inclusion Summit weekend in Lagos, bringing together influential leaders, policymakers and advocates.
The summit organised in partnership with the IE University; Women In Leadership Advancement Network, WILAN; and WRTHY, aimed to champion the cause of gender-inclusive leadership across various sectors.
Speaking at the event, Founder/Convener, Leading Ladies Africa, Francesca Uriri, emphasised the importance of advancing gender-inclusive leadership, as well as efforts by her organisation to support the cause.
According to her, achieving gender-balanced leadership calls for intentional efforts, structured frameworks, and actionable policies.
“In the Nigerian Senate for example, we have only four female senators out of over 300,” Francesca decried, expressing the need for equitable representation.
She, therefore, urged government to institutionalise gender-inclusive policies, ensuring a mandatory quota for women in political offices, executive roles, and corporate boards.
“At Leading Ladies Africa, we use every tool available to us to champion gender equity in leadership, from the Girls in Leadership Program to the Career Advancement and Mentorship Program, and the Enterprise and Leadership Program.
“Through advocacy campaigns, impactful content, and events like this, we bring together policymakers, private sector leaders, and civil society to foster meaningful change,” she added.
The summit featured four high-impact panel sessions. The first panel comprising Bode Abifarin, Founder & CEO of Strata; Folasade Femi-Lawal, Country Manager and Area Business Head, West Africa, Mastercard; Felicia Otolorin, Head of Financial Services Industry, West Africa, Google; and Lehlé Baldé-Cameron, an award-winning financial inclusion advocate and entrepreneur, laid a solid foundation for issues on financial and product inclusion.
Bringing expertise to the forefront, prominent figures including Folu Storms, a lawyer, broadcaster, and media executive; Tomike Adeoye, Media Executive and Co-founder of Maliaworld, Kelechi Anyikude, a dedicated male ally for women in leadership, Africa’s leading sports blogger and a PhD holder in Environmental Engineering, shared valuable insights on actionable pathways to women’s economic empowerment.
The session notably referenced a MoneyPoint study from 2024, which revealed that only 16.7% of women receive funding for their businesses.
It also revealed that the African Development Bank, AfDB, also reported even lower financial inclusion rates for women, pointing to systemic biases in traditional banking.
Diving deeper into transformative solutions, Nnenna Jacob-Ogogo, Group Head of SheVentures at First City Monument Bank Limited; Tolulope Babajide, Gender Network Manager at FSD Africa; Onyeka Koldsweat Akpaida, Founder and Chief Impact Officer; and Dewunmi Aisha Alugbin, Executive Director and Partner at Eden Venture Group, contributed their invaluable perspectives to the conversation.
Exploring gender-inclusive leadership as a catalyst for driving social and economic impact, another panel featured Temi Dalley, Group Chief Human Resource Officer at Sterling Financial Holdings Co.; Ifeoma Chuks-Adizue, Managing Director for Africa at Global Citizen; Osayi Alile, CEO of ACT Foundation; and Adenike Macaulay, CEO of Wakanow.
Turning the spotlight on technology and innovation, a discussion on Digital Innovation and Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Economic Empowerment featured Onyekachi Eke, International Business Development Director at IE Business School; Sade Dada, Head of Public Policy, Anglophone West Africa, Meta; Lola Olukuewu, Co-founder and COO of Aivira Technologies; Ugochi Agoreyo, Partnerships Lead for Google Search in Sub-Saharan Africa, Google; and Adetutu Laditan, Creative Director of Woof Studios.
Dada emphasised the importance of women exploring the limitless opportunities within the tech ecosystem, saying, “Beyond AI, women should explore the full spectrum of opportunities within the tech ecosystem.”
She stressed the value of authenticity, urging women to remain true to themselves while embracing personal growth.
Felicia Otolorin, Head of Financial Services Industry, West Africa at Google, on her part, underscored the importance of breaking barriers to achieve meaningful financial inclusion, saying, “Financial inclusion isn’t just about setting the bar high but about breaking barriers and designing solutions that truly work for women.”
The Leadership by Inclusion Summit ended on a high note, with renewed commitments to fostering policies that create a more inclusive, equitable, and dynamic leadership landscape for women.
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