ISSUE 48/DEC2022 - Flipbook - Page 34
Africa’s Most Influential Women | EVERYDAY HEROES
Chinelo Anohu
NIGERIA
Senior Director: Africa Investment Forum
BANKING & FINANCE: Investment Strategist
Africa, where 50% of the population
is female, holds the undesirable record
of a $42 billion financing gap between
male and female entrepreneurs. Yet,
research shows that women’s economic
empowerment can have significant
and positive macroeconomic impacts,
boosting productivity, and increasing
economic diversification, as well as income
equality. But even with such positive data
points, women entrepreneurs in Africa
are all to often just over-mentored, yet
undercapitalized.
In the current world order, this status quo
calls for urgent fixing. And if there is one
pioneering woman determined to change
that for the better, it is Chinelo Anohu.
She is the Senior Director of the Africa
Investment Forum (AIF), Africa’s premier
investment marketplace, championed by the
African Development Bank (AfDB) and its
partners.
Under Chinelo’s leadership the AIF operates
as a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary
platform, that seeks to close Africa’s
Chinelo has also introduced other
initiatives such as the AIF Deal Strategies
aimed at accelerating inclusive growth
by investing in African women.
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New African Woman
l Dec 2022
investment gaps. The AIF is dedicated to
advancing projects to bankable stages,
raising capital, and accelerating the financial
closure of deals. And within this mandate
is a strong focus on improving African
women’s access to financing and capital.
Since 2018, the AIF has mobilised over
$100 billion in investment interests. In
March this year, during AIF’s Partners
Meeting, the AIF unveiled 45 projects worth
approximately $50 billion. Of these, nine
are women-led projects with a value of
about $5 billion.
In November alone, $31 billion in investment
interest was yielded, during the 2022 Africa
Investment Forum Market Days event in
Abidjan. (See page 138)
One other flagship initiative Chinelo has
spearheaded in her current position is the
AIF’s Women as Investment Champions,
which was launched at the 2019 Africa
Investment Forum in Johannesburg. In
2021 the Women as Investment Champions
initiative led to the establishment of a
standalone pillar for transactions that are
not only founded and led by women, but
also have a significant gender impact.
Chinelo has also introduced other initiatives
such as the AIF Deal Strategies aimed at
accelerating inclusive growth by investing
in African women. This initiative is key to
breaking the investment-gap cycle, which