Sandra Amachree, Head of Communications and Marketing at Nigerian Breweries, recently took centre stage at the African Female CEO Conference (AFCC), where she inspired a powerhouse audience of entrepreneurs, innovators, and policymakers with bold insights on building sustainable businesses in Africa. Held on September 18th, 2025, at the Rose of Sharon Centre in Lagos, the summit, themed “Building Sustainable Businesses”, was designed to shape the future of female-led businesses across the continent.
With over 16 years of experience across Africa and Europe, Sandra is no stranger to driving sustainable growth. Having led impactful change across marketing, e-business, sales, and HR, she brings a rare blend of strategy, creativity, and purpose to her work. At the AFCC, she channelled that same passion into a cause dear to her heart: empowering women to lead innovation through sustainable business practices.
Sandra took centre stage on a panel discussion titled “Frugal, Fast, and Future-ready: Driving Innovation in Resource-Constrained Markets.” Moderated by Chidirim Ndeche, Editor at Guardian Life Magazine, the panel also featured industry changemakers Gertrude Umeh, Sales Operations Lead at Big Cabal, and Esohe Igbinoba, Director of Programs at BusinessFront. Together, the panellists tackled the real challenges facing female entrepreneurs on the continent today.
Despite having the highest number of women entrepreneurs globally, female-led businesses in Africa remain significantly underfunded and under-supported. For every $1 raised by start-ups in Africa in 2023, 75¢ went to all-male founding teams, 12¢ to solo male founders, 11¢ to gender-diverse founding teams, 1¢ to solo female founders, and 1¢ to all-female founding teams. Although Africa’s VC funding surged 1,597% from 2015 to 2023, female founders received just 2.3% of that funding in 2024. This troubling trend hinders the growth of female entrepreneurs and their businesses.
To succeed as entrepreneurs in this underfunded landscape, the panellist advised women to leverage alternative financing avenues. Adding to this, Sandra stated that female communities are crucial to alternative financing and growth. “As women, we must strategically place ourselves in rooms that matter to garner the right support. Visibility is key in community building. Be intentional about partnerships with like-minded investors and entrepreneurs,” she advised. “Your community is your biggest amplifier. Offer great service, and word-of-mouth will do the rest.”
Speaking on how women can leverage innovation to grow, Sandra stated that innovation is not always necessarily new technology; sometimes it’s renovation. She described innovation as sometimes looking at old problems in new ways and advised that African women must stop seeing underrepresentation as a barrier and instead reframe it as an opportunity to innovate new solutions.
As the event wrapped up, one message rang loud and clear: the future of African female entrepreneurship will be defined by speed, ingenuity, and community strength. In a world where resources are limited but creativity is boundless, innovation doesn’t need to be flashy or expensive; it needs to be deliberate and deeply rooted in purpose. The women who will lead the next chapter are those who move quickly, spend wisely, and tap into deeply connected networks to build businesses that not only survive but thrive and scale with impact.
Sandra Amachree’s presence at the AFCC was more than just a speech; it was a call for women across Africa to rise, rethink, and reimagine what’s possible in the face of constraints. With voices like hers leading the charge, the future of female entrepreneurship in Africa is unstoppable.