The Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Sidig Faroug El Toum, has revealed that women are driving a significant share of Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, with statistics showing that approximately 58 percent of African SMEs are owned or operated by women.
He made the disclosure during his welcome address at the SME Scale-Up Dialogue on the second day of the Africa Prosperity Dialogue (ABD) 2026 at the AICC, where policymakers, captains of industry, development partners, financiers, entrepreneurs, and youth leaders gathered to discuss the future of Africa’s single market under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
APD 2026, which runs from 4th to 6th February, convened under the theme “Empowering SMEs, Women and Youth in Africa’s Single Market: Innovate. Collaborate. Trade.” The dialogue brought together heads of state, business leaders, innovators, and civil society representatives to discuss strategies for boosting intra-African trade, entrepreneurship, and youth empowerment.
“Statistics show that approximately 58% of all African SMEs are women owned or operated,” El Toum stated, describing women entrepreneurs as central to Africa’s economic transformation.
El Toum noted that Africa’s SME sector is not only dominated by women but also strongly shaped by young entrepreneurs, reflecting the continent’s youthful demographic structure.
He explained that young people represent nearly 60 percent of Africa’s population and are increasingly becoming key drivers of entrepreneurship, with 65 percent of startup founders across the continent under the age of 30.
According to him, the combination of women-led and youth-driven enterprises makes SMEs the most important economic actor in determining whether AfCFTA succeeds or fails.
“Today we turn our full attention to an important economic actor who will ultimately determine whether AfCFTA succeeds or fails — Africa’s small and medium enterprises,” he emphasized.
The APN CEO described SMEs as the backbone of Africa’s economy, accounting for more than 90 percent of businesses on the continent and employing the majority of the workforce.
“SMEs are not in the periphery to Africa. They are transformation agents,” El Toum said, adding that the sector carries the innovation, resilience, and ambition Africa needs to compete globally.
He stressed that empowering SMEs, especially women-led enterprises, is essential to building a thriving and integrated African single market.
Despite their enormous contribution, El Toum acknowledged that SMEs continue to face deep structural challenges, including limited access to affordable finance, fragmented trade systems, border restrictions, and weak infrastructure.
“Yet too often they remain locked out of finance, fragmented by borders and constrained by systems that were not designed with them at all,” he noted.
He argued that unless these constraints are addressed, Africa’s vision of a prosperous continental free trade area may remain unrealized.
Held under the theme “Empowering SMEs, Women and Youth in Africa’s Single Market: Innovate, Collaborate, Trade,” ABD 2026 is designed to move beyond policy talk into real solutions.
El Toum explained that the SME Scale-Up Dialogue is intended as a practical problem-solving platform where regulators, financiers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers can confront challenges and develop actionable outcomes.
“This cannot be a platform for mere discussions. It must serve as a problem-solving space,” he said.
Key focus areas include scalable financing models, interoperable payment systems, value chain integration, logistics improvements, and tools to enable SMEs to trade confidently across borders.
El Toum also highlighted a shift in Africa’s development thinking, stressing that prosperity cannot be delivered by governments alone or built solely by large corporations.
“Development prosperity will not be delivered by government alone… it will be built by competitive African enterprises trading with each other,” he said.
He insisted that SMEs must be placed at the center of Africa’s single market agenda not as beneficiaries, but as partners driving the continent’s economic integration.
The APN CEO urged participants to approach the dialogue with practicality, collaboration, and boldness, noting that Africa’s single market requires courage, investment, and trust across borders.
“Africa’s single market will not implement itself,” he cautioned.
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