About NFNV
New Faces New Voices (NFNV) was conceived in 2009 as the business and finance pillar of Multiplying Faces Amplifying Voices, an initiative founded by Graça Machel to give African women a platform to influence change across different sectors. NFNV was founded on the belief that women are an under-utilized resource and that investing in women can have a significant development impact that will accelerate economic growth on the African continent.
National chapters established in various African countries serve as the implementing agents on the ground to drive this agenda forward, and identify strategic partners and other drivers of change to work with. Currently, NFNV has 15 chapters in Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
Focus on Women’s Empowerment
NFNV actively engages key stakeholders in the financial sector in order to achieve its three main goals. The first goal is increasing women’s access to finance and a variety of financial products; the second goal is building the capacity and skills of women as entrepreneurs and as financial industry executives; and the third goal is fast-tracking the number of women in leadership positions in the financial sector. Through its work, NFNV wants to deepen the financial inclusion of women on the continent and enhance the performance of women in the business sector.
Together with the African Development Bank, NFNV also hosts the African Women’s Economic Summit every two years, which brings together influential stakeholders to focus on how to maximize the economic contribution of women to their societies.