Despite renewed rhetoric around women’s empowerment and gender-responsive financing, Sterling One Foundation’s latest high-profile appearance at a continental summit has once again highlighted Africa’s persistent gap between declarations and measurable outcomes.
The Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to advancing women’s empowerment during the Presidential Breakfast Meeting on Financing and Reaffirming Africa’s G-20 Summit Commitments, held on the sidelines of the African Union Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa. The event brought together political leaders, development finance institutions, and private sector actors amid growing scrutiny of Africa’s underfunded gender agenda.
Former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama warned that “women are Africa’s most utilised asset,” stressing that development will remain incomplete unless gender equality is embedded in public finance systems. He admitted that gender programmes are often the first casualties during fiscal constraints. Similarly, AU Commission Director of Women, Gender and Youth, Prudence Ngwenya, questioned whether Africa is consolidating gains or regressing, highlighting a troubling pattern of reaffirmation without implementation.
Sterling One Foundation CEO Olapeju Ibekwe pledged to move “from conversations to capital,” describing financial inclusion as an economic imperative. Yet observers note that beyond summit appearances and partnership announcements, concrete evidence of large-scale, measurable capital deployment toward women-led enterprises remains difficult to verify.
Development analysts argue that Africa suffers not from a shortage of frameworks, Agenda 2063 and the SDGs already provide detailed roadmaps, but from chronic implementation fatigue. Without binding targets, transparent reporting, and accountability mechanisms, critics warn that gender financing risks remaining aspirational branding rather than transformative intervention.
The Addis Ababa meeting also served as a prelude to the 2026 Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS), which Sterling One Foundation will co-convene with the UN System in Nigeria and the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria. Organisers promise structured investment partnerships and bankable pipelines, but skepticism persists over whether this will mark a genuine shift toward execution or simply expand the conference circuit.
Africa’s gender financing gap is estimated in the billions annually, with women-owned enterprises still facing disproportionate barriers to credit, land ownership, and market access. For many stakeholders, the challenge is clear: moving beyond carefully crafted statements to demonstrable financial commitments with traceable outcomes.
By Kehinde Ibrahim, Lagos
