Women Wednesday Profile of the Week – Yasmin Belo-Osagie and Afua Osei – co-founders of She Leads Africa

Afua Osei and Yasmin Belo-Osagie — co-founders of the media and events company SheLeadsAfrica — coined the moniker to refer to members of their fast-growing online sisterhood of millennial urban women united by a shared ambition to build businesses or carve fulfilling careers. Judging by the crowds at their SheHive networking events in Lagos and Abuja, the duo appear to have identified a big market for the inspirational content on their website and the support they offer start-ups.

Whether such enthusiasm will seed significant numbers of viable businesses will be a bellwether of possible transformation in Nigeria. Ms Osei and Ms Belo-Osagie are cheerleading a new generation familiar with networking on social media who are determined to defy the patronage-based norms of a society where success has traditionally hinged on finding a powerful patron, known colloquially as a “godfather”.

 

“There really is this pervasive sentiment that unless you have connections, that unless you know somebody, that unless you’re part of the elite there’s really nothing you can do to change your situation,” says Ms Osei, speaking from a co-working office in Lagos that serves as SheLeadsAfrica’s headquarters. “We wanted to create a platform in the community where regardless of who you know, or where you come from, or where you live, you can access the same resources that will help you succeed in your business or your career.”

Born to Ghanaian parents in Washington DC, Ms Osei, attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, then landed a job as an associate at consultancy McKinsey. It was there she met Ms Belo-Osagie, a Nigerian-Ghanaian who grew up in Lagos and was educated in the UK. The pair launched SheLeads-Africa in 2014 with a start-up pitch competition offering a $10,000 first prize, awarded by Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man. The competition received more than 400 entries from 25 countries.

Ms Osei and Ms Belo-Osagie then quit their jobs to run their business full-time. They have since hosted networking events in cities including London, New York, Accra, Nairobi and Johannesburg. They have created programmes to help multinationals like Intel and Huawei connect with future employees or tap into the growing buying power of young, affluent women in Africa’s emerging middle class.

While women’s empowerment has long been a mantra of the aid industry on the continent, there is nothing stodgy or paternalistic about the SheLeads­Africa site. Slang-laced articles tackle issues such as “career FOMO” (fear of missing out), breaking into fashion while staying “true to yourself”, and justifying work choices to parents.

The tone has echoes of career sites in the US such as The Muse and Levo, but SheLeadsAfrica is firmly focused on the continent. In a recent post, Ms Belo-Osagie took Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, to task over sexist comments he made during a visit to Germany in October.

Under an embedded video clip of the statement, Ms Belo-Osagie wrote: “In one fell swoop, President Buhari lived up to every single stereotype that exists about northern, Muslim, Nigerian men and African men more broadly.”

Among the beneficiaries of SheLeads­Africa’s pan-continental support network is Cherae Robinson, an African-American from Brooklyn and founder of Tastemakers Africa, a mobile platform that helps visitors to the continent venture off the tourist track. Ms Robinson, who won the first SheLeadsAfrica pitch competition, says she has raised $120,000 from four investors she subsequently met through the organisation.

“SheLeadsAfrica is the reason my business is such a success in such a short timeframe,” Ms Robinson says. “Even when we’ve gone through bumps in the road, the network has connected us to people who could help.”

 

For SheLeadsAfrica’s founders, such stories show what young Nigerians could also achieve. “At one of our SheHive workshops in Abuja, we had a young woman give a teary testimonial about how her family discouraged her entrepreneurial dreams,” Ms Belo-Osagie writes. “I’m proud and happy to say that she left our training programs energised and ready to forge ahead with her plans to open a spa.”

(Source: https://www.ft.com/content/981c19ba-a4db-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6 )