Chief Enterprise Officer of MTN Ghana, Angela Mensah-Poku, made the call at the first EVE Women’s Forum in the United States, organised by the EVE International Foundation in Maryland.

She said that while African women had demonstrated strong entrepreneurial drive and resilience, access to the resources needed to turn those efforts into long-term wealth remained a major challenge.

“When I think about wealth, I do not first think about balance sheets. I think about a woman I met at a market in Kumasi,” she said, recounting the story of a woman who had kept her business savings in a tin box before moving to mobile money.

According to Ms Mensah-Poku, the woman now uses a mobile money wallet to save and transact, has accessed credit based on her transaction history, bought stocks ahead of peak seasons, employed two young women and serves customers beyond Ghana.
She said that the experience demonstrated how access could change the prospects of women entrepreneurs.

“Women have never lacked ambition, resilience or entrepreneurial spirit. What many have lacked is access to capital, markets, networks and tools that transform effort into opportunity,” she said.

Ms Mensah-Poku said that digital financial services could play an important role in widening that access, noting that Mobile Money had provided many women with an entry point into the formal financial system.
She said that access to secure savings and transactions could also help women build financial histories that could support access to credit and business growth.

Beyond income, she added that wealth creation should involve building assets, creating jobs, investing for the future and passing opportunities on to subsequent generations.
She cited figures from the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs indicating that women accounted for 37.2 per cent of business owners in Ghana, while Ghana Statistical Service data showed that women account for nearly 80 per cent of open-space businesses and more than three-quarters of mobile businesses nationwide.

She also referenced the Wells Fargo 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses Report, which identifies Black women as the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, with more than two million Black women-owned businesses employing over 647,000 people.

Ms Mensah-Poku said that entrepreneurial activity demonstrated by women on both sides of the Atlantic made it important to strengthen connections between African women and the diaspora.

At MTN Ghana, she highlighted that , this informed the development of Adwumapa, a solution designed for women entrepreneurs that combines connectivity with business support, including digital tools, training, networking, insurance, telemedicine, market access and financing solutions.

She also disclosed the MTN Ghana Foundation’s recent commitment of GH¢1.2 million to support smallholder women farmers and unemployed youth through a modern farming initiative, as well as the Foundation’s SME programmes providing women entrepreneurs with skills training and seed capital.

She urged stakeholders to move the conversation beyond women’s empowerment to ownership, with greater emphasis on helping women move from participation to scaling businesses, building assets and creating generational wealth.

The Chief Enterprise Officer said that forums such as the EVE Women’s Forum could help strengthen links between African women entrepreneurs and diaspora capital while creating opportunities for investment, mentorship and access to new markets.

Convener of the EVE International Foundation, Her Royal Highness Lady Julia Osei Tutu, said the forum was established to strengthen connections among women of African descent and create opportunities for collaboration across borders.

She said that bringing women from Africa and the diaspora together was intended to encourage the exchange of experiences and best practices while examining how women could build wealth and sustain it across generations.

The forum’s discussions focused on issues including access to capital, knowledge, networks and markets, alongside stronger economic connections between African women and the diaspora.

Ms Mensah-Poku congratulated Lady Osei Tutu and the EVE International Foundation for creating the platform, saying it brought together women, ideas, capital and purpose around the question of sustainable wealth creation.

Convener of the EVE International Foundation, Her Royal Highness Lady Julia Osei Tutu