Past Conferences - Accelerating Africa's Growth Conference

The Timeless Journey

Celebrating Five Years & Counting

2020: Moving from local to Global

The theme focused on shifting the narrative of Africa from ‘consumption to production’ with the key drivers of socio-economic reformation being youth, women, enterprise, industry, media and technology.

Keynotes and panels discussed how to position Africa in the global business arena whilst concurrently solving social problems and increasing the financial capacity of regular citizens; (social-economic transformation of Africa).

2019: Liberating Africa Socially and Economically

2018: Africa's Enterprise Reformation

The Conference was made up of 11 Sessions that took the form of, among others, panel presentations, plenary discussions, and one-on-one professional advice between participants and investment professionals. The different panels were made up of speakers in top positions of leadership. The topics of discussion were:

Investing in Africa
Africa Going Global – Making the Connections
Africa’s Shifts – Leadership, Paradigms, Media, Generational, Entrepreneurship
Timeless Side Events
- Developing Sustainable Women Enterprises through Non- Traditional Ways
- Africa’s Sustainable Energy – Powering Enterprises
- Timeless Women of Wonder Story to Date
- Enterprise Workshop – Ask the Enterprise Moguls
- Timeless Innovative Workplace – Showcasing African Enterprises

2017: Unlocking Potential, Igniting Innovation

The main focus of the conference was to showcase the wealth of hidden potential of women in Africa’s private sector. The Chief Guest, Safaricom CEO Mr Bob Collymore toured the Timeless Marketplace to meet and interact with women-owned businesses doing great things in their industries.

2016: Taking the Step

The focus of the conference was inspiring all attendees to take leaps in their respective spheres of influence to move Africa forward irrespective of barriers. It was about moving from talk to action! Liberia’s Vice President, H.E Senator Jewel Taylor highlighted that the conference theme depicted the state many women and leaders in Africa were in – cross roads, “We have gathered to derive strategies and plans for the next leg of this journey.”

2015: Healed Heels

For Africa to be great and for its people to thrive and prosper, there is a need to tackle our mindsets and attitudes as the cornerstone of personal transformation. It is for this reason that the Timeless Women Conference was convened as a platform for dialogue between women and men leaders of Africa, and the world from all key sectors to start the journey towards making our dreams for a flourishing Africa a reality.

Our Chief Guest for the 2015 conference was Ethiopia’s first ever female president, Her Excellency Sahle-Work Zewde, who delivered a keynote and shared her sentiments, “It’s very important for a woman to believe there is nothing she cannot do. Africa has really wonderful women to be celebrated. As Africans, we cannot be satisfied with that we have got because we are not there yet. We need more women leaders.“

timeless wisdom

“To be a transformational leader, the transformation must start with you. Only then would one know the meaning and value of the transformational change to those he or she leads along the way... If there is no mess there is no message”

Do not look at yourself as an African or a Kenyan, look at yourself as a human being who can change the future, see yourself not from where you are but where it is that you want to go.

The secret to greatness to greatness is to gang up on the problem rather than on each other

Power lies not in what you say but rather in what you do

Every woman is a leader in their own right and they have the power to influence and enable a nation to move forward.

“Stop defining women at the community level; let the women have an equal playing ground. Let them have a choice.”

Empowering women revolves around Power, Roles and Relationships.

Women have both a right and an obligation to be a critical part of the transformation in today’s world. Each of us must nurture a burning desire to be an agent of change. If you believe in your dream just take that step and you can make it.

To transform mindsets, you have to visualize

Poverty is not lack of money; it is when we lose our pride, culture and tradition. Poverty therefore is not an excuse for poor leadership.

We need leadership built around ideas and not individuals. Our politics should promote ideas and not personalities.

Women should not wait to be given the space in future industries, we should fight for it. We need to start at the family level and open doors for children; regardless of their gender. Let us free ourselves.

Women play a big role in food production; in Agriculture. If we invest in storage and value addition, we are industrializing and increasing women’s livelihoods. There are numerous opportunities for women under the African Growth and Opportunity (AGOA) Act but many women lack information on this.

The main barriers for women in business are lack of ambition and fear of debt

Women should embrace mentorship and equip other women to leverage opportunities in the finance sector.

Let us think big. Let us dream impossible dream. Push for 50% of all opportunities going forward, in all facets-political, economic, social not the normal 30%.

Men and women play complementary roles. Women bring diversity that men don’t have therefore women empowerment and inclusion is key.

There are no gendered hormones for innovation resilience and diversity. We are not the labels that society creates for us.

Opportunity meets preparedness