Africa’s Top 20 Young and Powerful Women

Women empowerment is an over flogged subject across Africa. It has travelled quiet a journey from the days when the continent’s female gender could barely compete with their male counterparts in any endeavour of life to a point where most women now call the shots, and are able to see their dreams come to life.

Various talk shops including the very famous Beijing Conference really defined the borderlines, and shaped what would later go on to become a reminder to most women that they matter.

Today, across Africa’s 50-something state, there is that general feeling of contentment amongst women that, dreams do come true. So sharp and piercing is the chord that it has defeated theories and projections of hard-lined chauvinists who seek to suppress women and pin them down to play second fiddle.

These days, it is hard to find an African woman who is not making it in one field or the other. The ratio of success is so high that ten out of eleven women are either heading a big corporation or running their own affairs.

Most important is the fact that the successes being chalked are products of young, lively and witty women, who went from nothing to something. And a finer aspect of their successes is that, they wield considerable influence that impacts society positively.

All under the age of 45, we take a look at 20 of Africa’s young and powerful women named by Forbes as shaping the fortunes of the continent in one way or the other.

Yolanda Cuba – South Africa

Arguably one of South Africa’s most respected and highly-revered business heads, Yolanda Cuba perfectly fits the description of a global corporate leader. From very humble beginnings she was able to make a name for herself at a time when most of her compatriots hadn’t thought of what to do with their lives.

An alumnus of the Universities of Cape Town and Kwazulu Natal, Yolanda became one of the youngest Chief Executives in South Africa when she headed the Mvelaphanda Group, a JSE-listed company in her late twenties. Still bubbling with energy, Yolanda continues to be a shining example to Africa’s youth.

Yolanda, who is a member of the Investment and Endowment Committee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, has and continue to serve on a lot of South African companies including SAB Limited, Reunert Limited, Steinhoff International Holdings, Absa Group Limited and Health Strategic Investment Limited.