Our Story

Our vision is a world with gender-balanced leadership where women thrive, as the foundation for inclusive growth for businesses, societies and economies across Africa.

Africa Women CEOs Network started as a virtual community on LinkedIn, the first group dedicated to women in and from the continent leading businesses. It has now grown to over 700 members including some of the continent’s prominent corporate CEOs and trailblazing founders, with our total community online and offline numbering well over 6000 women leaders from all five geographic regions of the continent. 

Our inaugural in-person event was a Women CEOs Power Breakfast held in 2018 with sixteen influential leaders – the first time many had attended an exclusive gathering of female CEOs. Since then our events have expanded to include peer networking events, business round tables, master classes, leadership lunches and dinners, director trainings, international conferences and business trips.

AWCN opens doors for our chief executives to access international business contacts, global leaders, speaking opportunities, and board roles. We have hosted events and gatherings in Lagos, Accra, Paris, London, and New York with plans for other cities in Africa.

We have also hosted senior leaders in business, government, diplomacy, and from international organizations such as UN Women, KPMG, Mastercard, Google, 100 Women in Finance, and others.

We work to support the UN SDG 5 on Gender Equality, Target 5.5 , “To ensure women’s full effective participation in leadership”. We are a registered UN Women’s Action Coalition Commitment Maker on leadership under the umbrella of our parent, Avandis Consulting. In pursuit of our goal to advance gender equality in leadership, we host virtual and physical events alongside global gatherings of world leaders including the United Nations General Assembly and World Economic Forum, Davos, and in partnership with our sister international community 100 Women Davos.

We contribute to institutional and policy change through our D,E & I work. We further create impact through collaboration with other international organizations and networks working on closing the gender gap in leadership and the workplace including Reykjavik Global Forum, Women Political Leaders, and Female Quotient.