Poor visibility, inadequate business documentation and weak compliance structures are increasingly preventing women-owned mining enterprises in Africa from accessing international buyers, investors and financing opportunities, industry stakeholders have warned. They have consequently called on women entrepreneurs in the mining sector to embrace digital due diligence and ensure that accurate, verifiable information about their businesses is readily available to prospective investors and commercial partners.
According to a report by The Cabal, the call was made during a webinar organised under the Mansa Awareness Initiative, a joint programme of Women in Mining Africa and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of Women in Mining Africa, Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, said producing quality minerals and having established customers were no longer sufficient for businesses seeking to compete in an increasingly interconnected global marketplace.
She explained that investors, banks, suppliers and international buyers were now paying closer attention to the ownership, legitimacy, operational capacity and regulatory compliance of businesses before committing their resources or entering into commercial relationships.
According to Asokoro-Ogaji, the inability of many African businesses, especially small enterprises, to provide dependable and verifiable corporate information was denying them access to potentially profitable opportunities.
“Having a product is important. Having customers is important. But when the business person needs to come to an institution, an investor, a supplier or new buyers of your products, there are questions that are asked,” she said.
She identified visibility, credibility and compliance as some of the major obstacles confronting women-led enterprises in Africa’s mining industry.
Asokoro-Ogaji stressed that businesses must be able to prove that they are legitimate, properly organised and trustworthy before prospective partners can confidently engage with them.
“When potential partners cannot find information about you from a verifiable sector player, it is a problem,” she said.
The Women in Mining Africa executive director also drew attention to the growing demand for mineral traceability, particularly in the gold industry, as international markets increasingly seek information on the origin of minerals and the extent to which producers comply with environmental, social and governance standards.
She noted that women were already making significant contributions throughout the mining value chain, including mineral extraction, processing, trading, supply, services and cooperative activities.
However, she cautioned that participation alone would not guarantee access to international markets unless women-owned businesses developed the systems and documentation required to satisfy global commercial standards.
Asokoro-Ogaji said the Mansa platform could play an important role in addressing the information deficit by providing Africa-focused data that could assist investors, financial institutions and potential buyers in carrying out due diligence on businesses. “Mansa is Africa’s due diligence data platform. Mansa provides Africa-focused information that can support due diligence on any African entity, including your enterprise,” she said.
Also speaking, the Vice President for Administration of the AfCFTA Young Entrepreneurs Federation, Prof. Frederick Ndalamani Nonde, said African women and young entrepreneurs must be intentionally positioned to exploit the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Nonde observed that women were already active in mining, mineral processing, trading, cooperatives and cross-border commerce, but said they needed stronger corporate profiles if they were to successfully move from local markets into larger regional and international markets.
“For an enterprise to move beyond its local market, to be able to establish credible business relationships, participate in cross-border trade or position itself for appropriate financial opportunities, it increasingly needs visibility, credibility and transparency,” he said.
He noted that the AfCFTA, with a potential market of about 1.4 billion people, presented vast possibilities for African enterprises.
But he warned that businesses could only take full advantage of the continental market if they were sufficiently prepared to meet the expectations of partners and investors across borders.
Nonde described the Mansa Digital Initiative as a significant mechanism for bridging the information gap that frequently makes it difficult for investors, financial institutions and businesses to evaluate potential African partners.
Presenting the platform, Business Development Associate for the Anglophone West Africa Region at Mansa Digital Business, Ngoma Nwankwo, said Mansa was established to address the shortage of reliable, standardised and comparable information about African businesses.
She explained that the platform provides centralised due diligence information on a wide range of businesses, including financial institutions, large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises.
According to Nwankwo, information on African enterprises is often scattered across different sources and presented in varying formats, creating difficulties for investors and potential business partners seeking to assess companies operating in different countries.
She said Mansa seeks to resolve the challenge by offering structured information on areas such as business registration, ownership, board composition, management and other relevant corporate and financial details.
Beyond due diligence, Nwankwo said the platform also provides information on investment opportunities across African countries.
She argued that easier access to credible business information could encourage African companies to increasingly source products, services and commercial partners from within the continent.
Such development, she added, would contribute to deepening intra-African trade by making it easier for businesses to identify and establish relationships with credible enterprises in other African markets.
The webinar forms part of a broader capacity-building programme designed to support women in mining, young entrepreneurs and other businesses operating across the upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the mining value chain.
The organisers said the programme would place emphasis on customer due diligence, strengthening business credibility and equipping African enterprises to access finance, investment opportunities as well as regional and international markets.
The discussions underscored a growing reality for African businesses: possessing valuable products and services is only one part of succeeding in the global economy. Without proper records, visibility, transparency and compliance, many promising enterprises risk remaining invisible to the investors and international markets they seek to reach.
