Increasing women leaders in Africa

In many of the top companies in Africa, women are underrepresented in leadership roles. Recognising this, we worked with TheBoardroom Africa (TBrA) to increase gender diversity in company boardrooms across Africa. We also supported TBrA’s plans to expand its influence into key African markets.

TheBoardroom Africa (TBrA) is the region’s leading organisation dedicated to promoting exceptional, diverse talent to board and executive positions and providing comprehensive executive education to empower leaders to transform the businesses they lead.

Although there is growing evidence that gender diversity improves financial performance, companies still haven’t fully taken advantage of diverse leadership teams. Globally, gender diversity at board level has improved from 22 per cent in 2019 to 27 per cent in 2022. In Africa, there has also been some progress in women representation on board seats. For example, the percentage of Kenyan women in board seats increased from 14 per cent in 2012 to 21 per cent in 2017 and 36 per cent in 2021, respectively. In Ghana, board gender diversity has increased from 18 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2021 Research shows that new rules promoting gender diversity on boards in some African countries have helped drive this growth. Even so, in 2022, only 25 per cent of board seats in African companies were occupied by women.

TBrA wants women and men to have equal opportunities in making company decisions. It’s helping to close the diversity gap on company boards in Africa by offering placements, networking and training.

During TBrA’s early phase, we saw the potential of its mission and a chance to increase women’s representation in leadership roles. In 2019, we supported TBrA through our technical assistance facility, helping the company to develop its growth plans and expand its influence across key markets in Africa.

Five years later, TBrA is empowering Africa’s exceptional women leaders. Today it has a community
of over 6,500 leaders (mostly women) from over 70 sectors and countries. It has placed more than 200 women on boards and trained more than 600 executives through its executive certificate programmes.