100 Lionesses ‘The Future of Work’ Playbook for Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs offers personal hacks and insights on how to transform business models, workplaces and workflows for future success — Lionesses of Africa

The 100 Lionesses Future of Work Playbook provides fascinating personal hacks and peer-to-peer insights to help women enterprises to kickstart their own future of work transformation journeys. It features 24 leading African women entrepreneurs who share their personal playbooks, hacks and experiences in preparing their businesses for the future of work in five key dimensions: Strategy; Leadership and Vision; Technology and Systems; People and Teams; and New Ways of Working. Importantly, it also provides a practical roadmap for Africa’s women entrepreneurs to follow, concluding with 9 key learnings to help businesses get future of work ready.

Speaking about the importance of business planning for The Future of Work for women entrepreneurs in Africa, Esther Marieme Dassanou, Manager, Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), African Development Bank Group, says:

“Gone are the days of full brick and mortar businesses, or only face-to-face interaction with customers. Moving forward the businesses getting ahead are the ones with a strong digital presence, involved in e-commerce, and having redesigned their systems to accommodate remote work. Looking at the glass half-full, this new work model provides great opportunities for women entrepreneurs as it allows them access to a much wider market, as well as increased productivity in some instances.”

Esther adds, “As women entrepreneurs pivot and adapt to the new ways of doing business, it will be important to carry along financial institutions who are also having to change the way they carry out their business. The inputs for better financial support and financial service customization can only come from open and more frequent dialogue between women entrepreneurs and financial Institutions. The African Development Bank through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Initiative is dedicated to closing the $42 billion financing gap for women SMEs on the continent. For this it works closely with commercial banks, meso and microfinance institutions, equity funds and guarantee providers to develop holistic programs which include financial and non-financial services for women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. It is time to make our financial institutions part of our growth and pivoting process.”