This year is shaping up to be one of great wins for our unstoppable African women and it’s about time we started celebrating these fearless women who are taking ownership of their power.
From Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s appointment as WTO Director-General, Rolake Rosiji’s promotion as CEO, Jobberman to Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe’s designation as the Managing Director and CEO of Fidelity Bank, we hope things will keep getting better and better!
What’s more? The Cherie Blair Foundation for women has just announced the appointment of Techpreneur and CEO of Bookings Africa Fade Ogunro, as the first Black female member on the board of its Global Campaign. Yes!
A techpreneur with a mission
In terms of experience, Fade Ogunro has a lot of that under her belt. This amazing young Nigerian woman is a fiercely talented techpreneur and CEO of Bookings Africa, a leading pan-African digital marketplace that leverages technology to empower millions of people around Africa economically, enabling them to generate income through their creativity and passion.
Before launching Bookings Africa in 2019, Ogunro has been active in the media space for over 15 years as a journalist, an on-air personality, and Executive Producer at Film Factory Production, Nigeria. She had also worked for Google in the UK, been featured in Vogue UK, and Guardian Newspaper Nigeria.
In 2011, she co-founded Film Factory Productions where she produced TV adverts, documentaries, and creative content for multinational companies such as GE, GT Bank, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Ferrari, Puma, MTV. Needless to say, this woman has truly earned her space in the media industry.
Passionate about closing the unemployment gap within Africa’s creative sector, she advocates the vital role technology can play in increasing the market share and visibility of Africa’s creative aesthetics.
Proving that ‘saying’ isn’t the same thing as ‘doing’, she founded Bookings Africa, leveraging disruptive technology to create an online marketplace that affords talented and skilled creatives an opportunity to upload their profile, their availability, work portfolio, services, and prices.
For the first time, African creatives can now connect with clients, promote their services, and promote value for their work in the African creative economy.
Fade Ogunro and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women
Ogunro’s recent appointment as a member of the Global Campaign Board for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women is also a groundbreaking achievement for Nigeria as she’s the first African and Nigerian woman to assume this position.
Established in 2008 by Cherie Blair CBE QC, the foundation seeks to unlock the potentials of women entrepreneurs in low and middle-income countries, bridging the gender gap in entrepreneurship.
Understanding that given the proper training, equipped with technology, mentoring, and networking, women entrepreneurs can create better futures for themselves and their families, positively impact their communities, contribute to prosperous economies, and steer the world in a new direction, the Cherie Blair Foundation is on its way to make these happen.
Through HerVenture, a business skill learning app developed by the Foundation, 11,300 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria have been helped over the past year.
To execute its 100,000 Women Campaign, which is to support another 100,000 women across the world by the end of 2022, Cherie Blair Foundation is assembling the Global Campaign Board of visionary leaders and philanthropists- of whom Ogunro is a part- to help raise funds and to promote the Campaign.
Fade Ogunro expressed her delight about her appointment, she said: “I’m delighted to join the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Global Campaign Board, helping them to raise much-needed funds and awareness across West Africa. It’s my dream to build great leaders, drive gender equality and reduce the rate of unemployment across Africa.
“I believe this can be rapidly achieved through digital adoption and inclusion; where learning, training, delivering a service and making money are done digitally. Sub-Saharan African economies lose nearly $100 billion a year because of the gender gap in the labor market and side by side with the Foundation, I am looking forward to contributing to minimizing that loss.”
Since Fade Ogunro is enthusiastic about building great leaders, reducing unemployment in Africa, and driving gender equality, there’s no doubt she’s a fitting candidate for her new position.
Featured Image, Fade Ogunro, Founder, Bookings Africa
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