Digital Entrepreneurship Could Redefine Africa’s Journey Toward Gender Economic Equality

Stories by Emma Okonji 

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released a new report titled “Financing Women’s Digital Entrepreneurship: A Pathway to Closing Africa’s Economic Gender Gap.” The study shows that women’s economic participation in Africa has slipped 0.6 percentage points below 2022 levels, extending the continent’s projected timeline to achieve economic parity from 120 years to roughly 170 years.

The findings are based on BCG’s Africa Women’s Voices Survey 2025, which interviewed about 3,000 women and men in six major African economies—South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt—alongside data from the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2025 and the region’s startup funding landscape.

The report notes that Africa’s post‑COVID economic recovery has been slow and uneven. From 2021 to 2024, GDP per capita growth on the continent averaged just 1.2 percent per year, less than half the global average of 2.5 percent. With 70 percent of women employed in vulnerable, informal jobs, they have disproportionately suffered from this regression.

Survey results reveal a troubling trend: since 2023, attitudes toward gender equality have worsened across the region, affecting not only men. Women are now less likely to support equal pay, financial autonomy and equal access to education, indicating a deepening of internalised discrimination.

BCG’s Managing Director and Partner, Global Lead for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Zineb Sqalli, commented, “What makes this data particularly concerning is that the regression is not limited to structural barriers. When we see women, themselves becoming less likely to advocate for their own economic rights, it signals how deeply these setbacks are being felt at a social level. The window for intervention is narrowing.”

The survey also found that 66 percent of women across the six countries aspire to run their own business, a figure that exceeds 80 percent in both Nigeria and Kenya. One in five women already operates an online business, and two‑thirds are considering starting one—outpacing men in digital business ambition.