The VA Pod

While Africa has attracted numerous investors over the years, enthusiasm seems to be dwindling. In 2023, African startup funding had a significant 39% year-on-year decline. In 2022, Oluwatosin Ogunjuyigbe of Ventures Africa highlighted the lack of "unicorns" in Africa's digital economy, suggesting that initial optimism has given way to closer scrutiny. What's the way forward for startups? The podc...

In Africa, social enterprises are driving development by blending profit with social good. They are proving that businesses can be inclusive and financially powerful engines for change. Yet, their dual nature presents challenges in securing resources for growth and job creation. According to the British Council, the estimate for the number of jobs directly created by social enterprises in Sub-Saha...

Africa is the hardest hit by climate change. According to the World Meteorological Organization, Africa is suffering disproportionately from the climate change crisis, even though it contributes only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Sterling One Foundation has partnered with Microsoft Nigeria, Sterling Bank, The Sun Media, Oando Foundation, Coca-Cola, and other esteemed...

Nollywood is undoubtedly Africa’s largest movie industry, and you will agree that its content has become a unifying factor on the continent. The gigantic movie industry has been estimated to be worth over $6.4 billion as of 2022, has raised and is still raising unique actors across the spectrum. In this podcast, we discussed the business of Nollywood and the International market, with Chioma Ude,...

Nollywood, Africa’s largest movie industry has come a long way. From the days of videotapes to CDs, Nollywood and the African movie industry have earned their fair share of fame on streaming platforms and in the continent’s evolving cinema culture. In this podcast, we have a chat with Ijeoma Onah, media entrepreneur and Founder of the Nigerian International Film Summit (NIFS). NIFS is a body that...

From the 17th to the 21st of September, 2023, Nigeria hosted the maiden edition of the Inspire Africa Conference. Innovate Africa Foundation organised the event for people in the product space to empower the product community in Africa. The event was held at Eko Convention Centre Lagos. It had over 1000 product leaders in attendance from more than 30 African countries with at least six partners at...

These 20 semi-finalists were chosen from 27,000 applicants and one thing they all share in common is the ability to drive impact as well as making profits in the various markets they are operating in. From Ghana’s Sommalife Limited to Zambia’s Good Nature Agro and Egypt’s iSpark, here are some impact stories from some of these entrepreneurs.

This podcast was adapted from our LinkedIn audio event titled, Seems like the right time for Nigeria to invest in renewable energy. Given the ongoing global conversation around the energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, we deemed it fit to bring on board two industry experts in Nigeria to hold this conversation. They include Chibunna Ogbonna, co-Founder and CEO of Kiru Energy Limi...

Did you know that livestock farming has a vast environmental footprint, offering both +ve and -ve impacts?

This week on Herstory, learn about Senegal's budding beauty entrepreneur, women empowerment in Ethiopia's coffee industry, and female CEOs in Nigeria's banking sector.

This week on Herstory, learn about Quartey-Papafio, one of Ghana's leading cable manufacturer, Grace Nzivo, a foremost Kenyan engineer, and Sohair Mansour, Egypt's famous matchmaker.

What is the link between patriotism and economic development? How does patriotism or the lack of it impact a country's development in general?

This week on Herstory, learn about women money changers in Djibouti and women brewers in Kenya and South Africa.

This week on Herstory, Standard Chartered Bank awards five female owned businesses $9,000 in Kenya, BBC report identifies a prevalence of digital gender gap in Africa, and Mali's Seynabou Dieng wins at the 2021 Cartier Women’s Initiative.

This week on Herstory, Kenya's first female Chief Justice assumes office, and women in rural Namibia earn a living from biodiversity-friendly trade.

This week on Herstory, Vogue celebrates Nigeria's leading female tech entrepreneurs, Girlcode Africa partners with Amazon to train unemployed women in South Africa, and Crystal Partners launches in South Africa.

This week on Herstory, Vodafone is connecting pregnant women with emergency healthcare in Africa, Libya’s first female foreign minister is being pressed to quit, and a Ugandan juice producer gets a $10 million grant.

Solape Akinpelu empowers Nigerian women to adopt high-level financial services and Catherine Nanziri is the first Ugandan woman boxer to make it to the Olympics.

This week on Herstory, Unicef and Microsoft collaborate over issues of domestic violence in Ghana and over 200 female cocoa farmers benefit from adult literacy programme in West Africa.

This week on Herstory, more than 90 percent of women in Mali, Niger and Senegal are deprived of their bodily autonomy, Nigeria’s Nnenna Nwakanma is improving women’s access to the internet, and a women’s rights group takes Mali to court.

Kenya's Chepngetich breaks women's half-marathon world record, Tunisia's Minister of Women affairs calls for mainstreaming gender in climate change, and two Morrocan women have been nominated for Berkeley Awards.

Kenyan women turn fruit waste to footwear, a 50-year-old Nigerian woman attends school for the first time, a Ugandan woman opens her home to children with down syndrome.

This week on Herstory, TUMI Ghana creates economic opportunities for Ghanaian women, TAMWA Zanzibar works towards breaking social barriers for women, and the people of Sudan call for justice over the killing of a teenage girl.

This week on Herstory, Tanzania welcomed its first female president, Kenyan court upholds FGM ban, and Egyptian women oppose repressive law.

This week on Herstory, five African women lead COVID-19 recovery in Botswana, court establish female access to inheritance in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, and Kenya ordains first female bishop of the Anglican Church.