Meet the Top 20 Inspirational Women of the African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women  (ADIPWO) List 2026

 

Welcome to the 13th edition of the Top 20 Inspirational Women from the African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women (ADIPWO), a list published to mark International Women’s Day and celebrate the achievements of some of the most inspiring women from Africa both in the Diaspora and on the continent.

Previously the list was called the African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women. However, I’ve been expanding the ADIPWO List to include more African women on the continent—a reflection of the growing movement of African women returning home and thriving across industries.

These women are being celebrated for their achievements and for putting Africa on the global map.

There is no particular ranking for this list compiled using nominations from the members of the public, internet sources and personal inspiration.

Below are the Top 20 Inspirational Women from the African Diaspora Professional Women in Europe (ADIPWO) 2026.

 

Read the News Release in English & French

 

 

 

The Top 20 Inspirational Women of the African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women (ADIPWO) List 2026

 

Browse the individualcards of the 20 women below

 

Amina Ouro-Agoro, Agro-Processing Entrepreneur | Togo

“Turning Africa’s Post-Harvest Losses Into a Food Security Revolution”

Amina Ouro-Agoro is transforming one of Africa’s biggest agricultural challenges — post-harvest waste — into a scalable solution for food security and rural prosperity. Through Minagro, she converts perishable tubers like cassava, yam, and sweet potato into long-lasting, gluten-free flour, extending shelf life from one-to-three months all the way up to three years. This innovation reduces food waste, strengthens local food systems, and creates new opportunities for the food industry.

Her work uplifts 300 women’s agricultural cooperatives, giving rural producers a reliable market and better income. By industrialising traditional crops and positioning them as alternatives to imported wheat, she is helping Africa move toward greater food sovereignty and local value creation.

Her vision goes beyond a business — it is a continent-level mission to fight hunger while empowering women farmers. With the right investment, Minagro has the potential to scale into a transformative agro-processing model for Africa, showing the world that solutions to its food challenges are already growing in its soil.

 

Brenda Katwesigye Baganzi, Manufacturing Entrepreneur | Uganda

“From Uganda’s Plastic Waste to East Africa’s First Homegrown Eyewear”

Brenda Katwesigye Baganzi is the co-founder of Wazi Vision, the first eyewear manufacturer in East and Central Africa — a company that transforms recycled plastic collected across Uganda into affordable, high-quality glasses. Wazi Vision addresses three of the continent’s most acute challenges: the lack of access to vision correction, the burden of plastic waste, and the absence of local manufacturing capacity in the health sector.

The numbers behind the need are staggering: hundreds of millions of Africans require vision correction but cannot afford conventional imported eyewear. Wazi Vision’s model — locally designed, locally produced, and locally priced — directly challenges the dependency on foreign supply chains that has long defined healthcare across the continent.

 

Clarisse Iribagiza, Tech Entrepreneur & CEO | Rwanda

“From Rwanda to the World — Building the Digital Infrastructure Africa Deserves”

Clarisse Iribagiza is the co-founder and CEO of HeHe Limited, Rwanda’s largest e-commerce platform, with over 2 million customers and a track record of transforming how Rwandans shop, pay, and access digital services.

Her ambitions extend beyond commerce. She co-founded DeepTechAfrica in partnership with MIT’s Legatum Center, a programme dedicated to building deep technology ventures — in fields like AI, blockchain, and biotech — that address Africa’s most pressing challenges. This combination of commercial acumen and technological ambition has earned her a place on the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list.

In a continent where the narrative of tech leadership is still too often defined from outside, Clarisse Iribagiza is writing a different story — one powered by Rwandan talent, continental ambition, and a refusal to wait for someone else to build what Africa needs.

 

Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Economist & Entrepreneur | Ethiopia – USA

Built Africa’s First Commodity Exchange

Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin is an Ethiopian-American economist and entrepreneur who founded the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), a groundbreaking market system connecting over 15 million farmers to more than $1.2 billion in annual agricultural trade.

By bringing transparency, pricing access, and structured markets to smallholder farmers, she transformed Ethiopia’s agricultural economy.

A Cornell and Stanford–trained economist, she later founded blueMoon Ethiopia and eleni LLC, continuing to develop innovative agricultural markets that empower African farmers and strengthen food systems across the continent.

She is widely recognized as a pioneer in using market innovation to reduce poverty and strengthen Africa’s agricultural value chains.

 

Enam (Angela Enam Keteku), Afro-Spiritual Singer | Ghana

“Where the Shrine Meets the Stage: A Voice That Transcends Generations”

Angela Enam Keteku — known simply as Enam — carries a sound that cannot be replicated, because it was never learned in a classroom; it was inherited from a shrine. Born in Anloga in Ghana’s Volta Region, she grew up singing with her great-grandmothers at the Yeweh Shrine, where music was not performance but prayer. That sacred origin infuses every note she sings. Today, she is the creator of a genre she calls Afro-Spiritual — a fusion of ancient Ewe rhythms, West African tradition, and contemporary global sounds that stops listeners in their tracks.

Her 2022 debut EP, Wuieve — meaning twelve in Ewe, a reference to her birthmark of twelve toes and her belief in a singular destiny — is a masterpiece of cultural storytelling, featuring award-winning Highlife artist Akwaboah. Co-hosting What’s Good Africa: Ghana Edition on Revolt TV has amplified her voice far beyond Ghana’s borders.

Enam is more than a musician; she is a guardian of African memory, ensuring that the wisdom carried by her great-grandmothers’ songs is never lost to time.

 

Fadima Diawara, Tech Entrepreneur & Founder | Guinea – Spain

“An African Smartphone for Africans — Built Here, Owned Here”

Fadima Diawara is the founder of Kunfabo, a pioneering African smartphone brand built from the ground up for the needs and realities of the African market. At a time when the continent’s technology consumers are almost exclusively served by foreign manufacturers, Fadima made the radical choice to build local — designing hardware that is affordable, durable, and relevant to the lives of ordinary Africans.

She secured a major distribution partnership with MTN, one of Africa’s largest telecom operators. This is proof that African hardware startups can compete, scale, and thrive without compromising their mission of accessibility.

 

Geogette Ochieng Ndabukiye, Manufacturing Entrepreneur | Uganda

“Seeing Clearly — and Building a Continent That Can See Itself”

Geogette Ochieng Ndabukiye co-founded Wazi Vision alongside Brenda Katwesigye Baganzi, establishing what is now East and Central Africa’s first eyewear manufacturing company. Together, they are building the continent’s eyewear supply chain from scratch — designing, producing, and distributing glasses that are not only affordable but specifically engineered for African faces, lifestyles, and climates.

The mission behind Wazi Vision is both deeply practical and profoundly symbolic. Practically, it addresses a healthcare gap affecting hundreds of millions across Africa who need vision correction but cannot access or afford imported glasses. Symbolically, it asserts that Africa can manufacture world-class products from its own resources — in this case, from plastic waste collected in Ugandan communities.

 

Lynn Ngugi, Journalist & Media Entrepreneur | Kenya

“Amplifying the Voices No One Else Dares to Hear”

Born and raised in Huruma, one of Nairobi’s low-income estates, Lynn Ngugi’s rise to become one of Africa’s most powerful media voices is exactly the kind of story she would cover. After years of hardship — working in coffee shops in Qatar and Dubai while fighting to break into journalism — she found her calling in human-interest storytelling. Her work at Tuko.co.ke captivated millions, and in 2021, she launched her own platform: the Lynn Ngugi Network (LNN), a humanitarian digital media house dedicated to factual storytelling that changes lives.

That same year, the BBC named her among its 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world — a list that included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Malala Yousafzai. With over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, accolades including the Commonwealth Ambassador for Change Award, the Gender Justice Champion Award, and recognition as Media Personality of the Year by East Africa Women of Excellence, Lynn Ngugi does not merely report on society — she reshapes it.

From domestic abuse to poverty and mental health, she is telling the stories that need to be told, one courageous interview at a time.

 

Maïmouna Diagne, Women’s Empowerment Leader & Founder | Senegal

“When Women Lead Agriculture, Africa Feeds Itself”

As President of the ‘Plateforme Africaine pour l’Autonomisation des Femmes’ (PAAF), Maïmouna Diagne is leading a movement that supports over 21,000 African women and girls, the majority of whom work in agriculture — the backbone of Africa’s food system. Through PAAF, she is ensuring that women gain access to land, financing, training, modern agricultural technology, and market opportunities, allowing them to move from subsistence farming to sustainable agribusiness.

Her work strengthens the entire agricultural value chain — from production to processing and commercialisation — ensuring women are not just labourers but owners, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers. By aligning PAAF’s initiatives with the frameworks of the International Labour Organization and UEMOA, she connects local action to regional and global development commitments.

 

Maimouna Kanté, Agri-Food Entrepreneur | Guinea – France

“Bringing Africa’s Finest Teas and Honeys to the World’s Tables”

Maimouna Kanté is a Guinean-French entrepreneur on a mission to transform the world’s perception of African food products. As the founder of Maison Kanthé France, she has built a company that sources and sells 100% African teas and honeys from multiple countries — Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Guinea, South Africa, and Togo — creating a premium global platform for Africa’s rich agricultural diversity.

Her work bridges two worlds: she brings the authenticity and purity of African produce to sophisticated European markets, while simultaneously supporting farming communities on the ground across the continent. This dual impact — commercial success and direct benefit to African farmers — earned her the prestigious Food Bridge 2024 African Diaspora Agrifood Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Maison Kanthé is more than a luxury food brand; it is a statement about what Africa is capable of producing. At a time when the global food industry rarely looks to the continent as a source of quality, Maimouna Kanté is changing the conversation — one cup of tea at a time.

 

Margaret Kyerematen-Debrah, Agri-Tech Entrepreneur | Ghana – United Kingdom

“Using Technology to Put Ghanaian Food at Every Diaspora Table”

Margret Debrah is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and co-founder of Eato, a technology-powered platform that connects the African diaspora with the authentic flavours of home. Eato uses digital infrastructure to source directly from Ghanaian smallholder farmers, giving global diaspora consumers access to high-quality, traceable African food products while investing in the livelihoods of local agricultural producers.

Her model addresses one of the most persistent challenges facing African food systems: the disconnect between producers and a globally distributed consumer base. By building a technology bridge between Ghanaian farms and diaspora kitchens, Margret is strengthening African food markets, reducing middleman inefficiencies, and creating meaningful economic opportunities for local farmers.

This innovative approach earned Eato the Food Bridge 2025 African Diaspora Agrifood Entrepreneur of the Year Award — a testament to the power of combining technology, diaspora identity, and agricultural development into a single, scalable business model.

 

Dr. Meriem Elyajouri, Astrophysicist | Morocco – USA

“Reading the Stars — and Rewriting What Africa Can Achieve”

Dr. Meriem Elyajouri has made history as the first Moroccan woman to join NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore — the prestigious hub responsible for the scientific operations of the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Her doctoral research at the Observatoire de Paris earned her the International Astronomical Union’s PhD Prize, recognising her as one of the world’s finest emerging astrophysicists.

At STScI, she studies interstellar dust in star-forming regions of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, shedding light on how the universe builds and rebuilds itself. But her ambitions do not stop at the laboratory: she co-founded Nomads for Science, co-led SpaceBus Morocco, and organised astronomy activities in remote desert communities through the Stars of the Little Prince project.

Named among the 100 Young and Exceptional Africans of 2024 by The New Africa Magazine, Dr. Elyajouri is showing young Africans — and especially girls — that the cosmos is not beyond their reach.

 

Mpho Hlongwane Nkgabutle, Automotive Engineering Entrepreneur | South Africa

“Breaking Every Barrier in South Africa’s Most Male-Dominated Industry”

Mpho Hlongwane is doing something that South Africa’s automotive industry has rarely seen: a Black woman building — not merely driving — the future of the sector. As the founder of MH Automotive Engineering, she has established one of South Africa’s first Black-owned automotive engineering firms, manufacturing components locally and creating jobs in a field long dominated by foreign capital and male leadership.

Her company is more than a manufacturing business: it is a statement about transformation. MH Automotive Engineering provides technical training and employment to young South Africans, creating pathways into a skilled sector that has historically been inaccessible to the majority of the country’s population.

 

Myriam Sidibé, Social Entrepreneur & Author | Mali – Kenya

“Changing Behaviour, Changing Lives — at Scale”

Myriam Sidibé founded Brands on a Mission and is the architect of Global Handwashing Day — a movement that has reached over 500 million people in more than 100 countries and is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives annually. As Unilever’s Social Mission Director for the Lifebuoy brand, she pioneered the idea that corporations can be forces for genuine public health transformation, not just profit.

After leaving Unilever, she distilled her philosophy into Brands on a Mission, a consultancy that helps companies across industries connect their commercial strategies to meaningful social impact. Her book has become essential reading for business leaders who want to understand how to align brand purpose with measurable human outcomes.

A TED speaker and a leader recognised across the development and private sectors, Myriam Sidibé is proof that one person’s conviction — combined with a platform — can change the world.

 

Ndeye Birame Sock, Tech Entrepreneur & Founder | Senegal – USA

“From Shazam’s Origins to Africa’s Digital Marketplace”

Ndeye Birame Sock is a serial tech entrepreneur with a track record that most founders only dream of. In 2002, she created Musicphone — a music recognition technology that would later evolve into Shazam, one of the world’s most downloaded apps. Though she sold the technology before it became a household name, this early innovation established her as a visionary who was years ahead of her time.

Today, Birame channels that same instinct into Kwely, a B2B wholesale marketplace connecting African manufacturers with global buyers. She also co-founded Haske Ventures, a venture-building fund dedicated to high-impact startups in Francophone Africa.

Named a Cartier Women’s Initiative laureate and a UNCTAD eTrade for Women advocate, Birame Sock is committed to putting the continent on the global digital map.

 

Nichole Yembra, Venture Capital Investor | Nigeria

“The Operator Behind Africa’s Most Successful Startups”

Nichole Yembra is one of the most consequential figures in Africa’s venture capital landscape. As the founder and Managing Director of The Chrysalis Company, she is deploying $15 million to back the most promising tech startups across Africa and the diaspora. Her investment philosophy is not transactional — it is transformational: she personally helps her companies build, scale, and compete on the global stage.

Before The Chrysalis Company, Nichole co-founded GreenHouse Capital and launched Nigeria’s first female-focused technology accelerator, pioneering a path for women-led startups to access funding and mentorship at a time when they were nearly invisible to institutional investors. The results speak for themselves: her portfolio companies have collectively raised over $63 million and created thousands of jobs across the continent.

Nichole Yembra is proof that the most powerful investors are those who understand what it takes to build from the ground up — because they have done it themselves.

 

Norah Kimathi, Biomedical Engineer & Founder | Kenya

“3D-Printing a Future of Mobility for Kenya’s Amputees”

Norah Kimathi is the founder of Zerobionic, a Kenyan startup pioneering affordable 3D-printed bionic prostheses for people living with limb loss in East Africa. Conventional prosthetics are prohibitively expensive for most Kenyans — often costing many times what a family earns in a year. Norah is solving this by harnessing 3D printing technology to reduce cost, increase customisation, and accelerate the production of prosthetics that restore movement and dignity.

Zerobionic’s approach is not just technological — it is deeply empathetic. By combining biomechanics, digital fabrication, and local manufacturing, the company creates devices tailored to the specific anatomy and lifestyle of each patient. This means people regain not just mobility, but the ability to work, care for their families, and participate fully in their communities.

At an age when many of her peers were still mapping out career paths, Norah Kimathi was already winning international recognition for building solutions to one of healthcare’s most pressing equity gaps. Her 2025 AWIEF Young Entrepreneur Award confirms what Zerobionic’s patients already know: that she is changing lives, one prosthetic at a time.

 

Stéphanie Assi Durand, Tech Entrepreneur | Ivory Coast – USA

“Building the Digital Future of West Africa — One Innovation at a Time”

Stéphanie Assi Durand is a trailblazing Ivorian tech entrepreneur who carried the skills she honed at IBM, Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, and McKinsey straight back to the continent she loves. She spent over a decade building government websites and applications in the United States — then made the bold decision to redirect her expertise toward Africa.

In 2017, she co-founded Moja Ride, a pioneering urban mobility platform in Côte d’Ivoire that centralises public and private transport on a single digital interface. She later founded  Meraky Tech, a digital transformation consultancy now operating in 12 countries, delivering 700+ projects across AI, web and mobile development, and UX/UI.

Stéphanie’s mission is clear: to make West Africa a hub of digital innovation and to ensure technology is accessible to all — especially women and underrepresented communities.

 

Stéphanie Mbida, Entrepreneur & Business Coach | Cameroon – USA

“From the Streets of Douala to a Multi-Million-Dollar Empire”

At age 9, Stéphanie Mbida was already an entrepreneur — selling pieces of wood on the streets of Douala. By 17, she had made her first million. Today, this Cameroonian powerhouse runs a multi-million-dollar e-commerce business on Amazon, leads KickLoans — a microcredit company designed to lift small entrepreneurs out of poverty — and coaches tens of thousands of Africans and Afro-descendants through her wildly popular YouTube channel, Parlons de Business.

What sets Stéphanie apart is not only her extraordinary financial success, but her relentless commitment to sharing the roadmap. Through practical, no-nonsense content on Amazon selling, business strategy, and financial independence, she has become one of the most trusted business voices for French-speaking African entrepreneurs worldwide.

She carries the ambitions of an entire continent on her shoulders — and refuses to let them down.

 

Ynes Hafi, Health-Tech Entrepreneur | Tunisia

“Using Artificial Intelligence to Fight Breast Cancer Across North Africa”

Ynes Hafi is the founder of Arsela, a North African med-tech startup that is bringing the power of artificial intelligence to one of the continent’s most underserved areas of healthcare: early breast cancer detection. Arsela combines AI diagnostics with telemedicine to deliver remote screening and diagnostic services, making quality cancer detection accessible to women in regions where specialist care is scarce or unaffordable.

In a region where breast cancer is frequently diagnosed at late stages due to limited access to screening, Ynes is working against time. Her platform creates a scalable alternative to the traditional hospital-based model — reaching women in underserved communities and enabling earlier, more treatable diagnoses. The human impact of this work cannot be overstated: early detection saves lives.

Her innovation earned her the AWIEF Tech Entrepreneur Award in 2024, placing her among Africa’s most outstanding women-led healthcare ventures. Ynes Hafi is a rare combination of technical vision and social conscience — and her work may save thousands of lives across North Africa.

 

 

About ADIPWO

African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women (ADIPWO) is an online forum that aims to:

  • Celebrate the success of African Women across the world, including in Africa.
  • Give visibility to women who have achieved success in their own way but may still be unknown by the wider public.
  • Inspire the new generation of African Women and share ideas to make a difference (no matter how big or small it is).
  • Contribute to Africa’s rebranding and development by identifying opportunities to transfer the vast knowledge gained outside the continent.

This forum is open to women of the African Diaspora and to anyone who has a passion for African development.

Join ADIPWO LinkedIn group with 500+ members to participate in the conversation.

 

About the Editor:

Francine Beleyi is the Editor and Founder of African Diaspora & Indigenous Professional Women  (ADIPWO), a list started in 2011 to feature the achievements of African women in their host countries and on the continent.

Francine is an award-winning digital & change strategist, business advisor, and personal branding for impact. She is leading Human Transformation in the Age of AI, helping leaders and organisations to navigate change successfully.

She is the founder of nucleus of change, international speaker and award-winning author of the book ‘Personal branding in the digital age: How to become a known expert, thrive and make a difference in the connected world’. She hosts the podcast Meaningful Work, Meaningful Life available on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

Follow Francine

 

Credits

Africa Fashion Tour → https://africafashiontour.com
African Shapers → https://africanshapers.com
Cartier Women’s Initiative → https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com
Vital Voices → https://www.vitalvoices.org
Forbes → https://www.forbes.com
Wikipedia → https://en.wikipedia.org
WeAreTech Africa → https://www.wearetech.africa
Maglazana → https://www.maglazana.com
Go Africa Online → https://www.goafricaonline.com
ODBA Ventures → https://odba.vc
TED Talks → https://www.ted.com
Times Live → https://www.timeslive.co.za
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com