More investors get behind women’s startups in Africa

When ‘Tokunboh Ishmael walked through the streets of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, there were women doing business everywhere she turned. They tended to stalls frying donuts and grilling skewers of meat. They sat behind sewing machines turning out custom-made designs and wove between cars in Nigeria’s infamous traffic jams, hawking air freshener and inflatable pool toys to bored commuters.

But inside the crisp, air-conditioned offices where she worked in banking, and later private equity, the story was different. Although Africa has the highest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world, there is a funding gap