From Bias to Bankable: AGF’s Case for Financing Women Entrepreneurs

November 2, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Cover Feature / Jules Ngankam, Group CEO, African Guarantee Fund (AGF)

On a crisp evening in The Hague on 17 September 2025, the 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event in The Netherlands took place, hosted by Lionesses of Africa in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event served as a rallying point for improving access to finance, supporting women entrepreneurs building high-growth businesses in Africa. Taking the stage, African Guarantee Fund (AGF) Group CEO Jules Ngankam delivered a message that resonated long after the applause: women are the backbone of Africa’s economies - and when their financial potential is unlocked, the continent’s growth story is rewritten.

Fiber Foods Group: creating economic, social and sustainable value for all stakeholders

November 2, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Inez van Oord, co-founder, Fiber Foods Group

Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025

Inez van Oord is the co-founder of Fiber Foods Group, a company that creates economic, social, and sustainable value for all stakeholders. Fiber Foods develops clean-label, whole-food ingredients in Africa that help food producers meet the growing consumer demand for healthier, more sustainable products. Fiber Foods is the inventor of PrimeJack® — a premium dehydrated jackfruit ingredient designed for large-scale food manufacturers.

MoneyPhone: Digital access to credit, anytime and anywhere

November 2, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025

Marthe Paauwe is the founder of Money Phone BV, a Dutch Fintech founded in 2018 that provides fast, affordable, and transparent loans to MSMEs, students, and smallholder farmers. Using AI credit scoring and mobile platforms, they empower the unbanked with inclusive access to credit; anytime, anywhere. Through MoneyPhone Africa, they aim to provide access to finance through their advanced technology, empowering rural communities in Rwanda and beyond while keeping costs minimal.

Podcast / From Bias to Bankable - AGF’s Case for Financing Women Entrepreneurs - a Conversation with Mr Jules Ngankam, Group Chief Executive Officer, African Guarantee Fund

October 29, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Podcast Interview

Following his powerful opening address at the 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 17 September 2025, Mr Jules Ngankam, Group Chief Executive Officer of the African Guarantee Fund, was a guest on the Lioness Radio Podcast speaking about the journey from Bias to Bankable - AGF’s Case for Financing Women Entrepreneurs.

Tech FoundHER Africa Challenge announced, awarding total of $100,000 in equity-free grants to women-led startups across the continent

October 19, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Tech FoundHER Africa Challenge

Each year, the Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague provides a powerful platform to update key stakeholders, partners and women entrepreneurs on key initiatives underway, important to stimulating greater investment in women-founded businesses. At this year’s event on 17 September 2025, Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, updated the audience on the launch of the exciting Tech FoundHER Africa Challenge. This impactful initiative, created by Global technology group, Naspers and Prosus, and conducted in partnership with Lionesses of Africa, invited applications from women-led tech and tech-enabled startups across the continent. Originally piloted in India earlier this year, the programme launched in Africa as part of their commitment to championing and supporting female founders in technology. Applications closed on 30 September, and the Challenge is now in the first round of screening, where an expert committee will shortlist 30 candidates for further evaluation.

Unlocking Value: The Business Case for Funding Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs in Growth Mode

October 19, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Feature

In Africa’s dynamic entrepreneurship landscape, the conversation around access to finance for women-led enterprises has never been more critical. At the Lionesses of Africa Start-Up Night Africa 2025 in The Hague, leading women entrepreneurs and investors came together to explore how capital, when thoughtfully structured, can unlock exponential growth. The event, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, showcased real-world success stories of African women founders scaling beyond borders and redefining the continent’s investment narrative.

Mama Moni: Driving financial services to financially excluded women

October 19, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025

Nkem Okocha is the founder of Mama Moni, a fintech company that provides inclusive digital financial services tailored for women in Nigeria. The company’s advanced female-only agent network helps to drive financial services to financially excluded women and the last mile.

Black Mamba Foods: Building a Better World Through Good Food

October 19, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025

Claudia Castellanos, co-founder and CEO of Black Mamba Foods in Eswatini, is passionate about The Black Mamba Manifesto: Building a Better World Through Good Food. Black Mamba is an African brand that makes bold, award-winning condiments with organically grown ingredients sourced from small-holder farmers. Exported to 12+ countries, the brand’s products deliver flavour with impact, uplifting 1,000+ people while proving food can be good for you, farmers, and the planet.

What we're loving this week

October 5, 2025 Melanie Hawken

What we’re loving this week

In this week’s spotlight on all things Woman Made In Africa, we are showcasing Africa’s talented and innovative women entrepreneurs who are creating sustainable, quality products that discerning and impact-driven customers want to buy. Catching our attention this week are: Rio Largo Olive Oil in South Africa, the multi-award-winning and innovative olive oil brand owned by Brenda and Nick Wilkinson; Savanna Premium Chocolate, co-founded by Chiinga Musonda and Lynn Musonda Phiri, a luxury artisan bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Lusaka, Zambia; Atelier Taila Carrilho in Mozambique, founded by Taíla Carrilho, who creates the most exquisite, eye-catching pieces, such as ornate wooden clutch bags and distinctive jewellery; Rokus London, a fine jewellery brand founded by Marie-Paule Tano, lovingly handcrafted between London and Abidjan, combining traditional and artisanal African metalwork with modern Western jewellery making techniques; Pichulik, the ethical jewellery, accessories and womenswear atelier based in Cape Town, South Africa and founded by Katherine-Mary Pichulik.

Built on Purpose: Discover Your Deep Inner Why and Manifest the Business of Your Dreams by Betsy Fore

October 5, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

Successful entrepreneur Betsy Fore, in her new book Built on Purpose: Discover Your Deep Inner Why and Manifest the Business of Your Dreams, shows how, by practicing a manifesting mindset, you can discover your deepest purpose. She calls this an “inner why” and believes finding it can unlock your greatest potential as a creator, founder, and builder of great products.

Lioness Launch / Caleb’s Farm Cabins in Potchefstroom, South Africa, officially opens its new dedicated events venue

October 5, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Gladys Kgorane, founder, Caleb’s Farm Cabins (South Africa)

Lioness Launch

Caleb’s Farm Cabins, the farm-style retreat and events destination in Potchefstroom, South Africa, launched in 2024, has gained a reputation for offering tranquil accommodation and wellness experiences for individuals, families, and small groups. It has now expanded to include the launch of a dedicated events venue, Hebron View Hall, which is ideal for celebrating special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries, as well as conferences.

Lerato Masuku, a South African construction business builder with a passion for infrastructure development and job creation

October 5, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lerato Masuku, director, Bokamo Warona Construction (South Africa)

Startup Story

Lerato Masuku is the visionary director of Bokamo Warona Construction, a 100% black female-owned company based in Daveyton, Benoni. Founded with a passion for quality and community development, the company specialises in general building, maintenance, plumbing, civil works, paving, and general supplies. Under Lerato's leadership, Bokamo Warona Construction has earned a reputation for delivering reliable and professional services, including recent successful projects such as slurry work on the R56 in the Eastern Cape. Lerato is committed to empowering women in the construction industry while growing a business that supports infrastructure and job creation across South Africa. The business was launched in 2016 and has created jobs for 10 people.

Olamide Alade, a Nigerian fashion brand builder with a passion for weaving cultural heritage into every garment

October 5, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Olamide Alade, founder and creative director, Amòké Regal (Nigeria)

Startup Story

Olamide Alade is the founder and creative director of Amòké Regal, a luxury modest Nigerian fashion brand redefining African fashion by weaving cultural heritage into elegance, exclusivity, and decency. With a strong passion for fashion storytelling, she creates exclusive pieces that empower ambitious African women to step confidently into corporate spaces, boardrooms, and on global stages while embracing their cultural identity. Alongside her creative work, Olamide is a Chartered HR Professional and an Associate of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), bringing depth and leadership experience to her entrepreneurial journey.

Vanessa Mhlom, a South African wellness brand builder

October 4, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Vanessa Mhlom, founder and CEO, Pleroma Patch (South Africa)

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Pleroma Patch, a South African innovative wellness brand creating plant-based patches to support sleep, recovery, and menstrual health.

Vanessa Mhlom is the founder and CEO of Pleroma Patch and is a 2025 Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award finalist. Pleroma Patch is a modern wellness brand pioneering a simpler, smarter way to care for your body, through transdermal vitamin patches. Pleroma’s discreet, plant-based patches support sleep, recovery, and menstrual health. Driven by her belief that dignified self-care should be a right, not a luxury, she is developing the ‘Patch It Forward’ initiative, a give-back model that channels a portion of each purchase toward expanding access to wellness essentials like menstrual and sleep support for underserved women and girls.

Walk With Me: Navigating the Patchwork of Compliance

October 3, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Shenea Graham

In my last post, I shared how data privacy stopped being “someone else’s problem” and became part of my own story. This month, one theme kept resurfacing: regulatory compliance. Here’s the truth — privacy isn’t just about principles, it’s also about laws. And not just one law, but a whole patchwork of global, regional, and local regulations. GDPR in Europe. CCPA in California. HIPAA in the US. POPIA in South Africa. And those are just a few. Every country, every region, seems to be drawing its own map. And for businesses working across borders, it can feel like walking into a maze where the walls keep moving.

Business Growth: How to Leverage Technology to Simplify Growth

October 3, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Dr Michélle Booysen

“Technology should do the heavy lifting, so people can focus on what matters most.” – Reid Hoffman

Whether you're an emerging enterprise or a well-established business entering new markets, integrated, process-led technology choices can reduce friction, improve efficiency, and unlock those opportunities.

The rise of fake applicants - how AI is fueling identity and CV fraud

October 3, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Jenny Reid

In today's competitive job market, employers are more eager than ever to find the right talent quickly and efficiently. However, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology are also making it easier for dishonest applicants to falsify their identities, CVs, and qualifications, leading to a surge in fake applicants and fraud.

My CV of Bustle: How Divorce, Autism and Burnout Trained Me for World Domination

October 3, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Marilize Jacobs

If you’d told me fresh after varsity that my greatest professional qualifications in my mid-30s would be earned not in an office, but on the floor of a paediatric therapist’s room and in divorce court, I’d have cried. In 2017, I was deep in the “triathlon of overwhelm”: navigating my son’s autism diagnosis, a marriage ending, and a body screaming with adrenal fatigue. I was a shell, crying over spilt milk because the spilt milk felt like the final, cruel joke.

Women entrepreneurs are a catalyst for positive change

September 29, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lionesses of Africa Event

Welcome address by Peter-Derrek Hof, Ambassador Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Director Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Start-Up Night Africa on Wednesday 17 September 2025.

The 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague connects high-growth women entrepreneurs from Africa and the Netherlands to access new markets, partnerships, and funding opportunities

September 29, 2025 Melanie Hawken

Lionesses of Africa Event

Finding solutions to closing the continuing gender finance gap for high-growth women entrepreneurs in Africa and the Netherlands was the key focus of discussion at the 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event on 17 September 2025, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The event was once again hosted by Lionesses of Africa, a fast-growing social impact organisation with 1.8 million women entrepreneurs across the African continent, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands. Opening remarks were delivered by Lionesses of Africa founder & ceo, Melanie Hawken; Peter Derrek Hof, Ambassador Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Director Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and a special address was given by African Guarantee Fund Group CEO, Mr Jules Ngankam.

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