If you want to change the world, start with women. That’s the compelling narrative that propels Ifeoma Dozie, who heads up marketing for Mastercard Sub-Saharan Africa. “First and foremost, as a marketeer, you have to understand and put yourself in the shoes of your audience, and of your targets. So, seeking first to understand truly where the other person is coming from — what influences them, what motivates them, what their habits are — is extremely important,” she revealed in this conversation with MarkLives’ Charles Mathews.
Part of this, she maintains, is for brands to understand the contexts of lived human reality. “Gender inequality — especially in Africa but also across the world — is a crisis that we are facing. Unfortunately, it’s a crisis that is growing larger and larger by the day,” she says, offering a path for progress: “Most of the potential though, for economic growth, for health, for education and innovation, lies in the hands of women.”
Benchmarked
Mastercard has usefully benchmarked women in business. The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs highlights the vast social-economic contribution of women entrepreneurs around the world. “Three African countries are in the top five: Uganda, Botswana, and Ghana,” says Dozie, adding: “When we market, especially in the technology industry, we think woman by design. We need to understand the potential that women have, especially in Africa.”
Continues the marketing expert with 20 years of experience across Africa and Europe, “Tapping into these trends, the potential, and the fact that we can unleash the potential through access to credit and through financial inclusion — these are some of the things that we focus on to ensure we’re effective in the way that we market our campaigns. But we’re also thinking about that greater good.”
She says women account for 50% of Africa’s population but quickly adds that this sex statistically only generates 33% of GDP. Research by global analysts, McKinsey, shows that Africa’s gender equality project has stalled. “Africa has so much promise. The continent is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and offers an exciting frontier for businesses looking for growth and new markets. And, yet, persistent gender inequality is limiting its potential.”
Disruptive game-changers
But she believes brands can become disruptive game-changers that advance the needs of both women and entrepreneurs. “There’s an untapped potential in women as contributors, not just in business but also in society, at the national and global scale,” she tells MarkLives. “I like to look at the African continent as a tale of two halves. On one side, there are significant challenges in terms of gender inequality, in terms of poverty, in terms of education, in terms of violence. But, on the other side of the coin, you have the youth population.” She punctuates this by stating that Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent economically.
Bloomberg reports that Africa’s 54 countries now include seven of the globe’s 10 fastest-growing economies. “The economies of Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya withstood the economic impact of the pandemic so successfully that they were among the world’s 10 fastest-growing in 2020,” Matthew A Winkler writes for the financial news brand.
Ecommerce has certainly helped the continent leapfrog economic growth so far during the covid-19 pandemic. Africa’s youthful advantage is seeing it rapidly adapt to emerging technologies. This, and a real political will that accelerates gender equality, could be a game-changer for the continent. “If Africa steps up its efforts now to close gender gaps, it can secure a substantial growth dividend in the process. Accelerating progress toward parity could boost African economies by the equivalent of 10 percent of their collective GDP by 2025,” McKinsey writes.
“Africa has leapt forward from a technology and innovation perspective,” says Dozie, who’s situated in Lagos, Nigeria. “In Nigeria, for instance, we have about 32m SMEs, 50% of which are run by women. They are central to the booming microcredit industry, which demonstrates one of the key challenges women face and how they overcome it.” Access to finance remains a blocker for women on the continent, despite abundant research that shows gender parity improves economic outcomes.
“Resilience of women”
Referring to the microcredit example, she says, “It demonstrates the resilience of women who just have to carry on and make a living for themselves, this ability to overcome the challenges from an access-to-credit perspective. Women, the female child and unleashing that potential is paramount to the future of the continent. Beyond this, the youth population and… what they are willing and able to achieve in terms of the entrepreneurial spirit is extremely critical. That entrepreneurs’ spirit combined with resilience creates innovation.
Through “forging partnerships and by making the commitment to ensuring that [women] get access to the financial economy, and ensuring that they are included,” Dozie believes Africa can accelerate real growth. “Ninety percent of transactions in Africa today are still cash-based, so it’s extremely important to really drive financial inclusion, and to forge partnerships that can support local businesses, local entrepreneurs, including women-owned businesses,” she says.
To achieve this, Mastercard made a global commitment to bring 1bn people into the digital economy by 2025, she says. This includes 50m small businesses and a direct focus on 25m entrepreneurs in Africa. “The only way that we’re going to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth is to ensure no one is left behind. We need to build a more connected ecosystem that’s thriving well beyond cash, one where everyone has equal access to a better life,” she says.
Girls4Tech
To address the gender skills gap in Africa (a driver of gender disparity), Mastercard created a STEM support program for female youngsters called Girls4Tech. At the end of last year, the effort was present in 30 countries and reached 1m girls. The goal is to increase the target to 5m by 2025.
“The world is on the cusp of change, and that change really starts by putting a spotlight on the inequality that exists, right?” asks Dozie, who describes herself as a nurturer.
When asked, “Who are you?” she answers: “First and foremost, I’m a mother. I’m a mother of two beautiful daughters — teenagers. That’s a very integral part of my life, you know? In addition to that, I’m passionate about consumer behavior. I’m a lawyer by training, and so I have that critical reasoning and analytical foundation. But, very very soon into my legal degree, I found myself in debating societies whereby I wanted to break the rules. I wanted to innovate; I wanted to challenge the status quo.”
From the get-go, she realised law wouldn’t cut it for her, and has spent the last 20-odd years as a marketeer. “I am someone who is passionate about changing and inspiring human behavior,” she says, adding that “building brands that have an impact on human beings, and that occupy the hearts and minds of people,” is what has made her the “Ify” she is today. “I think we have an opportunity to be less intrusive, and more part of the fabric, which is ultimately the best way to truly add value,” she says, and the best way to add lasting value is to build and support women.
With additional reports from MarkLives
