Business
Ghana applies for a banking licence for its Women's Development Bank
Market women, susu collectors and bankers helped design the 'last-mile' lender, Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said.
Topic
Women and Development
African women building businesses, leading institutions, advancing science and changing their communities, from every section of PANM.
Health
Helium Health wins a US$2.5m Google.org grant to use AI for safer pregnancies in Nigeria
Its HeliumMum programme aims to reach 1.9 million more women in Lagos, Delta, Kano and Oyo over three years.
Politics
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: the teacher who marched 10,000 women on a king
She fought unfair taxes on market women in Abeokuta, forced a ruler to step aside in 1949 and took Nigeria's women's cause to the world.
Culture
Twenty years after her exams, a mother of two starts university in Kenya
A church women's group raised the money for Betty Nyamai, 39, to study education at Tharaka University.
Politics
Yaa Asantewaa: the Queen Mother who led the fight for the Golden Stool
When a British governor demanded the symbol of the Asante nation in 1900, she shamed the chiefs into war and took command herself.
Politics
West Africa's regional court has become a route to justice for women
Citizens need not exhaust national courts first. A new book traces rulings on marriage, violence, work and schooling.
Business
IFC buys into SUNU's banks with up to $29m, with women-led firms in mind
The World Bank's private-sector arm is taking a stake in the holding company of the African insurer's banks in Senegal and Togo.
Politics
Nigeria proposes 74 new reserved seats for women in the National Assembly
Each state would gain one woman senator and one woman representative for 16 years. State assemblies still have to agree.
Business
Clean energy jobs: how Ghana and South Africa can open them to women
A study of 14 energy policies finds women get cleaner stoves but miss out on technical jobs, contracts and ownership.
Climate
Wangari Maathai: the woman who taught Kenya to plant trees
She founded the Green Belt Movement with rural women in 1977 and in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Politics
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Africa's first elected woman president
Jailed under military rule, she went on to lead Liberia for 12 years, win a Nobel Peace Prize and chair ECOWAS.
Health
90,000 Nigerian women got emergency childbirth care, paid for by the state
The NHIA covers complications in 300 accredited hospitals with no deposit, and has funded fistula repair for 6,000 women.
Business
From garden to market: Kaduna's women farmers are feeding families
Onions, okra, cabbage and carrots are lifting household incomes, helped by free fertiliser for 150,000 smallholders.
Politics
West Africa's court where women can sue their own governments
The ECOWAS Court lets individuals bring cases directly, and has ordered states to change policy. A KNUST lawyer explains what works and what needs fixing.
Politics
Young Akwa Ibom advocate puts state budgets under a gender lens
Lucy Eyo's project will track three years of spending on health, education, water and women's livelihoods to see whether money reaches women and girls.
Health
A day as WHO's Ethiopia chief: one graduate's Girls Takeover
Timrhabiruk Mulugeta, a 2026 social work graduate, took the World Health Organization's top seat in Addis Ababa for a day to speak up for girls.
Business
Korea and Egypt's women's council wrap up three years of training on women-led business
KOICA's programme with Egypt's National Council for Women drew on Korea's experience of supporting women's employment and small enterprises.
Climate
"Climate resilience begins with care": West Africa prepares one voice for the UN women's summit
ECOWAS states agreed priorities on paid care work and women's place in the green economy, to feed into the African position for New York in March 2027.
Health
Ghana launches a policy to look after mothers' mental health
Seventy per cent of health workers surveyed did not know maternal mental health disorders. A new national policy, backed by WHO training, aims to change what happens in antenatal clinics.
Business
Solar cold rooms could help Africa's women farmers keep what they grow
Three in four working women in sub-Saharan Africa work in farming and food. In Enugu, solar cold rooms and greenhouses are being built for 500 young farmers, most of them women.
Politics
Morocco's first woman prime minister forms a four-party government
Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri's coalition holds 207 seats in the lower house, nine more than it needs for a majority.
Technology
The Egyptian apps taking the shame out of periods
Only one Egyptian woman in five has medical insurance. A Cairo app and a maker of reusable underwear are building products around what women will not ask aloud.
Technology
Four Kenyan women win hackathon with an AI fare-payment system for matatus
The team behind Naulisako beat 40 other young developers in a 30-hour contest at Konza Technopolis and will now compete against winners from five other African countries.
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