Digital African Women launches platform to help female traders sell across borders

A Belgium-based group that supports women in business has unveiled a set of tools meant to help African women sell beyond their own countries, saying the move shifts its work from training to actual trading.

The Digital African Woman (DAW) said its new setup centres on two platforms: a cooperative and an online marketplace. Two other parts, a training hub and a studio that helps businesses grow, support them.

The organisation says it has reached more than 20,000 women and given out over 6,000 small loans across 15 countries in Africa and Europe.

Why it matters for small traders

For many Nigerian women who run small businesses, the hard part is not making a product but getting it to buyers in other countries. Payments, delivery and trust often get in the way.

DAW founder Khadijat Abdulkadir said the gap is about access, not talent. "African women have the talent, ideas and ambition to build, but talent alone is not enough," she said, adding that markets, technology, finance and useful contacts are what make the difference.

She pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, a pact meant to open trade across the continent, and asked what it is worth if a trader cannot move goods and money between countries without trouble.

"If I am a coffee maker in Gambia, I want to sell to someone in Nigeria without worrying whether it will get there," she said.

The marketplace gives each seller a personal online shop under its own name, tools to track orders and sales, delivery support, a digital wallet and ongoing lessons through the training hub.

Abuja launch and Kenya expansion

The cooperative was launched in Abuja in 2025 at a workshop hosted by Belgium's ambassador to Nigeria. The European Union ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, Belgian ambassador Pieter Leenknegt and former EFCC chairman Farida Waziri were among those at the event.

This year the group took the marketplace to Kenya with LEAP Africa, its first step into East Africa. LEAP Africa's managing director Kehinde Ayeni and its director of programmes and partnerships, Amabelle Nwakanma, attended.

DAW also named Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, minister of state for budget and economic planning, as its ambassador. The group said she has used her position to speak up for women and narrow the gap in economic leadership.

Uzoka-Anite is a medical doctor and former banker who now works on Nigeria's long-term plans, including the goal of a $1 trillion economy by 2030.

The organisation marked 10 years this year with an empowerment series in Lagos for International Women's Day, themed "Accelerate Her Power: Rights. Justice. Action."

What happens next

DAW says its focus for the next decade is building platforms that let women find customers and trade across borders, rather than training alone.