The Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) has announced the theme for its prestigious annual conference taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town, South Africa, from 30 to 31 October 2025.
As a leading pan-African organisation driving women’s entrepreneurship and innovation, AWIEF continues to provide a powerful platform to promote inclusive economic growth and gender equity across the continent.
AWIEF2025 is the 11th edition of the annual conference, a highly anticipated two-day event, an international platform and gathering of a wide range of stakeholders from the African and global entrepreneurship ecosystem, to engage in impactful dialogue and work together on bold, gender-inclusive and forward-thinking solutions for a thriving business landscape for women in Africa.
The conference theme this year is “Breaking the Barriers: Now More Than Ever”.
Despite notable progress in women’s empowerment, today, we are witnessing not just a stagnation but, alarmingly, an active backlash against gender equality and women’s rights. This regression threatens to reverse hard-won gains and underscores the need for urgent, collective action.
The theme of AWIEF2025 is both a call to action and a statement of urgency. It reflects the growing recognition that, in a world marked by political instability, economic uncertainty, technological disruption, and persistent inequality, we cannot afford to remain complacent. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently emphasized, “We are witnessing an aggressive backlash against gender equality – threatening hard-won progress… We must push back against this pushback.”
In the lead-up to 2030, “Now more than ever,” we must renew our commitment to gender equity and ensure that no woman is left behind in Africa’s development journey.
Following the resounding success of AWIEF2024, which brought together over 1,000 attendees from over 50 countries, including 42 African nations, the upcoming AWIEF2025 promises even greater impact and engagement.
AWIEF2025 will once again convene a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, investors, policymakers, development institutions, academia, media, and civil society to foster collaboration, drive transformative change, and scale women-led innovation and enterprise.
Delegate registration is now open.
Exhibition stand bookings are also open, offering a prime opportunity for businesses, startups, and organisations to showcase their products, services, solutions, and innovations to a pan-African and global audience.
Join AWIEF in Cape Town and be part of Africa’s most empowering platform for advancing women in business and innovation.
Africa Fact: The Nigerian city of Surame flourished in the sixteenth century. Even in ruin it was an impressive sight, built on a horizontal vertical grid. A modern scholar describes it thus: “The walls of Surame are about 10 miles in circumference and include many large bastions or walled suburbs running out at right angles to the main wall. The large compound at Kanta is still visible in the centre, with ruins of many buildings, one of which is said to have been two-storied. The striking feature of the walls and whole ruins is the extensive use of stone and tsokuwa (laterite gravel) or very hard red building mud, evidently brought from a distance. There is a big mound of this near the north gate about 8 feet in height. The walls show regular courses of masonry to a height of 20 feet and more in several places. The best preserved portion is that known as sirati (the bridge) a little north of the eastern gate . . . The main city walls here appear to have provided a very strongly guarded entrance about 30 feet wide.”
Twix Bond
Dawn Nathan-Jones started her illustrious career at 21 when she joined Imperial Care Rental when it was just getting off the ground and only had five cars. Her ability to innovate, reinvent and drive change helped her become CEO of Imperial Group\’s Car Rental Division. In the position for 18 years, she spearheaded the merger of Imperial Car Rental and Europcar, which is now used as a case study for rebranding by local and international business schools. She went on to become one of the \”sharks\’ on M-Net\’s Shark Tank. In 2007, she won the Transnet Foundation\’s Boss of the Year Award. In 2012, she was appointed as Vice President of SAVRALA (Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association). She is a member of the Business Women\’s Association, International Women\’s Forum, Institute of Directors and advocate of Equal Opportunities for Women and founded the Europcar Jewish Woman in Leadership Award.