The African Development Bank is proposing a new global award that will recognize innovative initiatives and businesses by African women.
“The African Women Innovation Award would be given to the winners of a global competition among innovative women projects and businesses throughout Africa,” said Leila Mokaddem, AfDB’s financial institutions manager, during the Congress of the World Business Women Association held last week in Florence, Italy.
“In this era of regional integration, we should encourage women to do things differently,” Mokaddem added, as quoted by an AfDB press release.” If the African continent wants to be competitive at the international level, it must be in line with international standards. The AfDB wishes to encourage women entrepreneurs in this direction.”
The AfDB press release said delegates to a session exploring innovative ways to promote European-African cooperation between women in business including Françoise Foning, president of the World Business Women Association, and Laura Gucci, president of the Italian association of women entrepreneurs, “welcomed the idea of the award with much enthusiasm.”
