• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Women in Business: Aramide Abe

Women in Business: Aramide Abe

Aramide Abe is a British/Nigerian woman on a mission to influence private sector policies in Africa and to build the African startup ecosystem through her entrepreneur platform, Naija Startups, a virtual 90,000-member sector agnostic hub for small to medium sized businesses.

Trained as a computer scientist, she has a unique 15 year background in technology, marketing and strategy having notably led the strategy implementation of a multi-million dollar project for a pan-African financial services organisation, across its 36 countries.

She was instrumental to the adoption of a new system by the 18,000 employees of a bank through her elegant leadership and strong project management skills.

On Naija Startups, she says “Naija Startups growth has always been organic. We offer a model similar to LinkedIn for example, there are free offerings, but also paid services which members subscribe to. We will continue to grow organically but also employ strategic partnerships and leverage the marketing around several programs.”

Read Also: Nigerian startups raise more money in a single month than whole of 2020

Abe understands that challenges in the last few years have caused African founders to be more critical than ever but she is optimistic as regards to the government’s plans to better enable the business environment in Nigeria.

She has an MBA from the prestigious INSEAD and from the Kellogg School of Management, with a focus on marketing and strategy. She also has an Upper Second Class degree in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham.

Aramide is a recipient of the Investing in Women UK ‘Wonder Woman Award’ for the ‘Woman in Tech’ category in 2019. She also won the Social Media For Good Award in 2019 and is an honorary award recipient for business development by the Global Leadership Institute in Nigeria.

Abe was named one of the 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria in 2018 by Leading Ladies Africa and The Guardian. She is an ambassador of the Cherie Blair mentorship programme, and is also a mentor with Google LaunchPad Africa and Microsoft Africa, where she has directly mentored hundreds of young entrepreneurs.

As a key influencer in the African SME ecosystem, Aramide serves on the United Nations committee on private sector development for Africa on regional integration and trade and the digital economy.

She also consults on the committee on policy development for the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) country business index, with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

She sits on the Board of Trustees of the Redefine Africa foundation, a philanthropic organisation and serves on the advisory board of the InaTide Limited, a clean energy social enterprise.

She is a bilingual (English & French) speaker who is passionate about gender equality, access to information for young Africans as well as connecting people.