Business leaders should widen women’s access to capital, contracts and company equity as firms grow, board director, wealth strategist and investor Udo Maryanne Okonjo argued in a Nov. 11 opinion column for BusinessDay.
Okonjo called on Tony O. Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group, to expand commercial opportunities for credible women-owned businesses. Her “BUY, BACK and BUILD” framework also calls for connecting growth-ready firms with capital and partners and helping women become owners and investors.
BusinessDay reported that Okonjo said 12 women met on Oct. 16 to begin work on an initiative she calls “Towards an Ownership Agenda 2036.” She said the effort should produce measurable transactions within five years and change the ownership landscape by 2036. Her column did not announce funding commitments or a public reporting schedule.
At the 25th annual Women in Management, Business & Public Service (WIMBIZ) conference in Lagos on Nov. 5–6, Elumelu said the foundation had deployed more than $120 million in seed funding over 15 years, reaching 24,633 young entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries. “Advocacy got women into the room. Capital will get them to the head of the table,” he said. EconoTimes previously covered Elumelu’s call for more African capital.
The foundation said women represented 51% of its 3,200-person 2026 cohort, selected from more than 265,000 applications. It said 91% of those selected were at the idea or early stage, and each was slated to receive $5,000 in non-refundable seed capital, along with training, mentorship and network access. Those figures describe the 2026 cohort; Okonjo’s proposal centers on businesses seeking room to expand.
Okonjo proposed measuring progress through investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, supplier contracts and employee equity. She said capital should earn a return and businesses should be well governed, with results tracked against the five-year horizon she outlined.
