5 Female Leaders Championing E-commerce in Africa

The e-commerce sector is developing at a steady pace in Africa and the continent is seeing the emergence of numerous entrepreneurs, however with a few percentage of these entrepreneurs being women. The few ones that have broken the norm are unleashing their true power and capability. These women are turning up with innovative world class business ideas; and are playing an important role in boosting the economy. The success of prominent female leaders in Africa like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Isabel Dos Santos, Folorunsho Alakija, and Bethlehem Tilahun Alem, are bringing more attention to the women folk. However, besides the likes of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, and Youtube’s Susan Wojcicki who are making impact in the tech sphere, there’s a crop of outstanding women who are leading and launching tech companies in Africa. These movers and shakers changing the e-commerce narrative in Africa are:

Juliet Ehimuan – The Nigerian national is Google’s Country Manager in Nigeria and under her leadership, Google Nigeria has launched several initiatives targeted at building the online ecosystem in Nigeria. She was recently named by Forbes as one of the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa.

Rebecca Enonchong – The Founder of AppsTech, awarded the ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) by World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland and Forbes listed ‘10 Female Tech Founders to Watch in Africa’. Enonchong also serves as an advisor/mentor to several African tech startups and is also the founder of Africa Technology Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting technology in Africa.

Olatorera Oniru – Founder and CEO of Dressmeoutlet.com, one of Africa’s fastest growing, fashion-focused, quality-focused and customer-centric online retailer of fashion, beauty and health products with over 60% of products on Dressmeoutlet.com Made-in-Africa. She has been recognized by Commonwealth Africa Awards, Forbes Most Promising Africans, Africa.com’s Top 5 Youngest Entrepreneurs, IT News Africa “Top 5 Women in Tech” and African Achievers Awards. Her track record of success has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, CNN and several other leading publications.

Juliet Anammah – Chief Executive Officer of Jumia Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s foremost online shopping mall. She’s passionate about “Africa rising’ and women advancement. Juliet serves on the board of many non-profit organizations involved in women development and trade expansion.

Isis Nyong’o – Isis Nyong’o is a Kenyan American media and technology leader in Africa who has held leadership roles at InMobi, Google and MTV in Africa. She quickly became recognized as a global thought leader on mobile advertising in Africa. Isis has been named as one of ‘Africa’s Top 20 Youngest Power Women’ by Forbes and the top ‘40 women under 40 in Kenya’ for several years as well as been shortlisted, on IT News Africa’s ‘Top 10 Women in ICT’ and ‘Africa’s most powerful women in tech 2013’. She was selected as a ‘Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum’ in 2012. With more and more women putting their foot forward in the tech world and riding the bull to greatness in a male dominated industry. Africa is not just seeing the emergence of great unmatched talents but also an inspiration to new budding techpreneurs thereby encouraging more greatness to emerge from the continent.