Launched in 2022, the Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards is the first initiative of its kind to recognize outstanding female entrepreneurs shaping the future of the region.

“At Mastercard, we believe when we support women entrepreneurs, we are not only supporting the economy but also their desire to solve real needs. That’s why we are committed to creating an enabling environment for women to fulfil their potential as business leaders.

“The Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards is an integral part of our women’s empowerment journey. This initiative helps us generate momentum so we can continue to uplift the most impactful women changemakers,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA, Mastercard.

This year’s edition of the awards was open to all women owning or leading businesses with a turnover under $13.6 million (AED50 million) and 6-50 employees that have their offices or offer their services in the EEMEA region.

The winners of Mastercard Women SME Leaders Awards 2024 are:

1. The Creative Leader: Fay Wong, Director and Partner, BID (UAE)

2. The F&B Leader: Laura Kaziukoniene, Founder and CEO, Super Garden (Lithuania)

3. The Visionary: Hanane Benkhalouk, Founder, Tawazoun (UAE)

4. The Leader of Tomorrow: Reem AlMusabbah, co-founder, Unipreneur Inc, and Head of Community Engagement and Membership, Women in AI UAE Technology (UAE)

5. The Health Custodian: Chelsea Hornby, Founder, Elle International (South Africa)

6. The Innovator: Farah Zafar, Co-founder and CEO, Lyvely (UAE)

7. The Retailer: Pamela Lilburne Opie, Founder and CEO, Linen Obsession Textile Trading (UAE)

8. The Educator: Jessy Radwan, Founder and CEO, Carerha (Egypt)

9. The Professional Services Leader: Yuliia Fedosiuk, CEO, UAPAY (Ukraine)

10. The Fashion & Beauty Leader: Leda Di Marti, CEO, Maelle Group (UAE)

11. The Media Leader: Jacqueline Lawrence, Highlands FM Radio (Tanzania)

12. The Social Impact Leader: İpek Koç Kıraç, Suna’nın Kızları (Turkey)

13. Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr Smita Francis, Founder and Chair, Namibia Women in Engineering Association (Namibia)

14. Home-Based Business of the Year: Alicia English, Executive Director, The Olive Exchange (South Africa)

15. Momrepreneur of the Year: Farah Ahmed Farag, Founder and CEO, The baby garage (Egypt)

The Women SME Leaders Awards 2024 jury included Mastercard’s Amnah Ajmal, Tamara Pupic, Managing Editor, Entrepreneur Middle East, and Nezha Alaoui, Founder and CEO, Women Choice.

The award ceremony featured insightful discussions by prominent industry leaders from across the region. Aleksandra Agatowska, CEO, PZU and Co-founder, LUU Kids, and Ola Doudin, Co-founder, BitOasis, joined Nezha Alaoui in a panel discussion on breaking the glass ceiling in the SME space.

Amnah Ajmal, Alya Al Zarouni, COO, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and Mila Smart Semeshkina, CEO & Founder, Lectera.com and Founder & President, Women’s Empowerment Council, explored ways of fueling business growth through innovation and creativity.

Wrapping up the agenda, Fadi Ghandour, Chairman, Wamda Capital and Founder of Aramex, shared his perspectives on the importance of perseverance for every entrepreneur during their business journey.

The Women SME Leaders Awards aligns with Mastercard’s global pledge to connect 25 million women entrepreneurs to the digital economy by 2025 as part of its efforts to build a more sustainable and inclusive world. The company achieved the goal in June 2023 – two years ahead of the deadline.

Following two years of virtual events, the award ceremony took place in person for the first time at Bluewaters Forum by Banyan Tree Dubai.

The Mastercard virtual payment solution, linked to Cellulant’s payment gateway – Tingg, can unlock a host of opportunities for consumers, whether they have a bank account or not. Consumers will be able to shop from well-known global digital commerce brands, paying quickly and securely for leisure shopping, travel, accommodation, entertainment, streaming services and more, while in their home countries or travelling abroad. 

The announcement comes as digital commerce and online shopping is thriving across Africa and the need for safer means of shopping online increases. According to the Economy 2021 Outlook conducted by the Mastercard Economics Institute, 20-30% of the COVID-19-related surge in digital commerce will remain a permanent feature of overall retail spending, and shopping through mobile is largely how consumers access these opportunities.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile devices are the primary channel used to connect to the internet. According to GSMA, smartphone connections are expected to reach 678 million in 2025, with a penetration of 65%.

As a result, alternative payment methods driven by mobile payments have increasingly begun to dominate the digital payments landscape. Consequently, consumers increasingly expect access to a broader range of online offers and digital financial services.

The majority of these consumers obtain goods and services from micro, small and medium-sized businesses. Africa today has about a 100 million MSMEs but less than 5% of their transactions are digitized.

For these businesses, virtual cards offer a compelling path to digitization with added benefits such as tracking, reconciliation and quick settlement of day-to-day payments, better management of customer and supplier relationships and minimized fraud risk all without sacrificing operational speed. Taking advantage of these opens up paths for growth through value chain financing and ease in raising working capital.

Mastercard is collaborating with partners to build a strong digital economy that can unlock a world beyond cash where everyone thrives. The partnership with Cellulant plays a role in advancing Mastercard’s worldwide commitment to financial inclusion to bring a total of 1 billion people, and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025.

“Mastercard’s technology enables our digital partners to redefine their consumer’s digital commerce interactions and experiences. By focusing on the provision of multi-use, omnichannel digital payment solutions, Mastercard is enabling its partners, such as Cellulant, to improve their operational efficiency, diversify their revenue, and transition seamlessly into digital commerce. We see the increasing proliferation of fintechs as a strategic opportunity to add value by creating more connections, better user experiences and greater choice for consumers,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.

“We believe seamless payment experiences are the backbone for accelerating economic growth across Africa. MSMEs are the driving force for Africa’s economy and our work in digitising payments for businesses and their consumers enables the requisite foundation for innovation, economic development and financial inclusion. By partnering with Mastercard, we are looking to further open up pathways that effectively position our customers for the growth they need,” said David Waithaka, Chief Revenue Officer, Cellulant Group.

Over the last 18 years, Cellulant has built an extensive and unparalleled payments platform that provides local, regional and global businesses with a one-stop-shop payment solution offering a frictionless payment experience for their needs across the continent. Covering 35 countries across Africa with about 300 payment integrations, Cellulant helps stitch together the fabric of Africa’s commercial landscape making interoperability possible.