The desire to provide support for the ideas of African women, helping them have access to professionals who can assist with advice and funding to turn start-ups into major business enterprises spurred her and her partner Yasmin Belo-Osagie into building an online community for young African women to network  and succeed in their career and business.

Afua Osei, a young Ghanaian woman is a Management Consultant and co-founder of She-Leads-Africa.

She recently completed a Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. She is a graduate of international management from the London School of Economics and Allegheny College.

Her career started at EMILY’s List, traveling across the United States providing strategy and communications expertise to political campaigns. Her other professional experiences include creating community engagement programs as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia, assisting the White House research and writing teams in the Office of the First Lady, and examining housing tax credit programs as a Baltimore Mayoral Fellow in the Office of CitiStat.

Afua has presented at the Harvard African Business Conference on “Empowering Women in Business” and contributed business and entrepreneurship articles to Ventures Africa and Bella Naija.

Alongside her co-founder Yasmin Belo-Osagie , she was named amongst Forbes’ 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa with features in a number of reputable publications including Forbes, Black Enterprise, Fox Small Business, Fast Company, and Ventures Africa.

What is she leads Africa about?

She Leads Africa is a community that helps young African women achieve their professional dreams. It is a social enterprise ensuring women are part of Africa’s growth story. With access to the latest business and entrepreneurship news, exclusive networking events, and start-up capital, She Leads Africa aims to be the premiere organization for young African women looking to build and scale strong businesses.

With engaging online content and pan-African events, our   vision is to become the #1 destination for smart and ambitious young women.

We are committed to helping smart and ambitious young African women live their best lives, by promoting and uplifting local talent by proactively identifying promising African experts and practitioners and providing them a platform to grow.

We provide support for the ideas of African women and help them have access to professionals who can assist with advice and funding to turn start-ups into major business enterprises.

How and when did you  start?

It started as a Nigeria-based social enterprise in 2014 by Yasmin Belo-Osagie and I. We started working on the idea after realizing the need for leading women in Nigeria and the rest of the continent, to provide support for the ideas of African women and help them have access to professionals who can assist with advice and funding to turn start-ups into major business enterprises.

We wanted to equip female entrepreneurs in Africa with the knowledge, network, and financing needed to build and scale strong businesses.

What is the goal and vision of she-leads-Africa?

Our vision is to become the #1 destination for smart and ambitious young women with engaging online content and pan-African events,

She Leads Africa aims to be the premiere organization for young African women looking to build and scale strong businesses.

How does this business operate?

We are an online community for young women; this is to help them succeed in their career and business. We have events and programs that we host in Africa and in the diaspora. We have an online platform where women can connect to an expert coach. It is basically digital, we work through our website.  We are a team of seven young women and a young man, every member of the team has a unique function and role to play.

How did you get funds to start?

My partner and I kick started independently using our own resources and work ethics. What we do is that we organize an event and then raise funds through that event. We didn’t have any loan or grant.

See 4 disciplines of execution

How can one start this business?

You need to build an online community and then find people you want to work with and get them interested in what you are trying to create. You need to know who your target audiences are, finding out what their problems are and how to solve them.

Did you have any experience before starting?

I have an interesting background in communications and strategy and have also been working as a consultant, so all of those experience just helped me combine it with my desire to help young African women start and grow their businesses with all the support they can get.

According to reports, She Leads Africa has already recruited nearly 1,000 women-led start-ups into their network, going on 10, 000 in 2015, how have you been able to manage this?

It has been about being able to grow your digital community so they can find your website. Also you don’t need to really meet people in person.

What are the opportunities for you in this business?

I have enjoyed working with young women who are passionate about building a business they want to grow and also do something with their lives. It has been quite inspirational having to learn about women in Africa, what the trends are , the business trends  and the opportunities that are available for you to do business and be successful .

What are the challenges you have faced?

Staying focused because many people will try to sway you into different directions by saying “oh why do you help young girls’’?

Sometimes when you start a business, you cannot predict how it will turn out and staying confident to see the outcome can pose a challenge.

Finding talent is also challenging.

You have also been featured in both local and international press, how has the response from people been so far?

The media outreach is nice and cool but not the main thing you look out for. We have been growing quickly, more people are joining our community, and more people are participating in our events and finding opportunities through our website.

How do you use social media?

It is one of the main drivers of how people find out what we are doing. It is critical for us to be active on Facebook, twitter, instagram and you tube. We use it to reach out to young women who are interested in what we are doing.

What are your future plans for she leads Africa?

To be the No 1 destination for young women in Africa who want to succeed in their career and business. Having more people join our online community and visiting our website.  We plan to host and co-host event in different countries.

 

 

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