By: Mamudu Hamzat Gideon
The entrepreneurship space is increasingly gaining popularity as a major channel through which many women give expression to their dreams and in recent times, there has been a significant increase in the involvement of women in entrepreneurship as a result of increased technological advancement among other factors.
While it’s not uncommon to see top CEOs and entrepreneurs contribute to causes as a part of their companies’ corporate social responsibility, some individuals have stepped it up a notch. Female entertainers are not left behind as we’ve seen a number of them embarked upon significant charitable causes across developing nations. Some of these notable female entertainers will be spotlighted in this article. First on the list is Pop music Icon Madonna Louise Ciccone. She is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman, who has continuously contributed to charitable causes. Considered one of the most influential women in contemporary music, this American recording artist, Golden Globe winner, and entrepreneur, has received global recognition for her efforts to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi’s 2,000,000 orphans and vulnerable children through Raising Malawi, a non-profit organization she founded in 2006 with Michael Berg. Raising Malawi is…
Janice Bryant Howroyd is an African-American woman, born on the first of September, 1952 in Tarboro of North Carolina, United States of America. Her father had a mixed race, his ancestry was of both Irish and Cherokee, but Janice mother is an African-American. This astute woman is energetic and passionate, self-inspired and very diligent. Being self-inspired is traceable to her early days in life, as a teenager in Tarboro. She suffered the torments of racism being a black girl in the midst of other white children. She was the first and only black student while in high school. According to Janice, “back in high school, there was so much racial discrimination, there was no joy in returning to school the next day if you succeeded in surviving the bad day you had the day before.” She recalls one of her worst days in school, when one of her teachers “explain…
By: Faridah Mugimba Kakyama African pension funds are starting to invest in infrastructure projects on their underdeveloped continent. The African Development Bank hopes the deepening pool of homegrown savings can fill the $45 billion hole it sees in annual infrastructure financing needed in Africa. “It’s an unprecedented chance to make the investments in infrastructure and other sectors that the continent so desperately needs,” said David Ashiagbor, who runs a division of the bank devoted to developing financial markets in Africa. Until recently, most pension funds in Africa were hesitant to invest in infrastructures such as roads, railroads, and ports. Tying up cash in decade-long projects seemed unnecessarily risky while strong economic growth was driving up local stock markets. Africa’s economy has recently grown by about 5% annually thanks to strong oil and mineral output as well as the rise of a nascent consumer class. The continent’s sovereign bonds were also…
A new women-only transport service launching in Paris aims to tackle the problem of sexual harassment and assault in taxi cabs. For many women taking a taxi isn’t always the stress-free option for getting from A to B that it should be, and Paris is no exception. But a new company launching in the French capital is hoping to make that a thing of the past. Women drive promises transport without “indiscreet looks, delicate questions, or ambiguous proposals”. It also promises a luxury experience, with concierge and personal shopper services offered in addition to standard drivers, and water bottles, makeup kits, and computer tablets in each car. The goal of the service is to “prove that transporting people is not a profession reserved for men and that women have the right to be transported in peace,” founder Sarra Boubchir told Le Figaro. She said the inspiration for the startup came…
The Turkish government is planning to reduce the ratio of underage as well as forced marriages in the country from five percent to one percent through an action plan regarding the issue prepared by the Family and Social Policies Ministry for 2018-2023, daily Milliyet reported on Aug. 31. According to the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), of the 602,982 official marriages in Turkey in 2015, over 30,000 girls aged 16-17 were forced into marriage, the daily said. This figure corresponds to 5.2 percent of all marriages that year, whereas this ratio was determined to be 7.3 percent in 2002, according to Milliyet. The Family and Social Policy Ministry has held meetings regarding its action plan called “Strategy document and action plan for prevention of early and forced marriage.” In these meetings, the officials reportedly said the issue of child marriage was still an important problem in the…
The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, has introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage, a move that follows a string of liberal reforms in one of Latin America’s most conservative nations. In 2015, Chile’s Congress approved same-sex civil unions after years of legislative wrangling. In March, Bachelet, a centre-left politician, pledged to send a full marriage bill to legislators before the end of the year. “We can’t let old prejudices be stronger than love,” Bachelet said in Chile’s La Moneda presidential palace. “We do this with the certainty that it is not ethical or fair to put artificial limits on love, or to deny essential rights just because of the sex of those who make up a couple.” The move comes a week after Chile’s constitutional court approved a landmark bill that will allow abortion in some circumstances. Chile was one of only a handful of countries in the world that…
