International Women’s Day: Women Who Lead, Inspire, and Lift Others

With International Women’s Day approaching this Sunday, March 8, 2026, we turn the spotlight on women who lead, inspire, and lift others. In this feature, we highlight five Nigerian women who have not only built remarkable careers in entertainment, beauty, fashion, media, and finance, but who have also built influential careers and created opportunities for others. Their stories showcase their professional impact that empowers those around them.

Tiwa Savage 

Tiwa Savage: Instagram

Tiwatope Omolara Savage, known as Tiwa Savage, is a singer, songwriter, and the first African female artist to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in July 2016. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, she signed with Mavin Records in 2012 and built one of the most recognised careers in Afrobeats.

She has spoken publicly throughout her career about the double standards female artists face: how their personal lives attract more attention than their work, and how they rarely receive the same professional respect as their male counterparts. For younger women in the industry, hearing someone at her level say it plainly has been widely noted.

In February 2026, she launched the Tiwa Savage Music Foundation, a philanthropic initiative dedicated to developing the next generation of African music creatives including producers, songwriters, sound engineers, and music executives, not just performers. Her reasoning was direct: behind every successful artist is an entire ecosystem of professionals, and across Africa, access to structured training for those roles is scarce. The foundation was created to change that.

Stella Ndekile  

Stella Ndekile: Instagram

Stella Ndekile trained and worked as a Medical Laboratory Scientist at UNILAG Medical Centre before co-founding Nuban Beauty in 2015 alongside Jane Ogu. The brand officially launched in 2017, built around a straightforward observation: international cosmetics brands were not formulating products for African skin tones or Nigeria’s climate, and Nigerian women had been compensating for that gap for years.

Their In My Skin Foundation became popular among customers because it addressed that gap directly, matching the skin of the women buying it in a way that imported products consistently failed to do. Stella built the brand’s e-commerce platform herself and ran it solely online for two years before a physical store opened.

In 2025, she introduced an AI-powered Skin Decoder at the Lagos Makeup Fair, a tool that analyses hydration, pigmentation, and skin texture to generate personalised skincare recommendations, making that technology accessible to consumers. She has also published Success Uncharted, a book about building a business without a conventional roadmap to see that it has been done before.

Mimi Yina

Mimi Yina: Instagram

Mimi Linda Yina, known as Medlin Boss, grew up in Gboko, Benue State, and studied Sociology at the University of Port Harcourt. She started her fashion business as a student, sourcing clothes on trips abroad for coursemates who liked what she wore. By graduation it had turned into a real business with paying customers.

Her first store in Port Harcourt attracted a clientele that grew steadily to include Funke Akindele, Yemi Alade, Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde, Ini Edo, and Nancy Isime. Her styling of Teddy A and Bam Bam’s traditional wedding outfits was covered widely across Nigerian entertainment and fashion media. In 2019, she relocated Medlin Couture to Lagos. By 2021, she was dressing the judges and host of The Voice Nigeria.

Beyond her client work, she runs outreach programmes for underprivileged women and children and has used her public profile to advocate for women’s rights. She has spoken about the responsibility that comes with visibility in the fashion industry.

Mo Abudu

Mo Abudu: Instagram

Mosunmola Abudu, known as Mo Abudu, launched her talk show Moments with Mo in 2006. In July 2013, she founded EbonyLife TV on DSTV as Africa’s first global black entertainment and lifestyle network, putting together the content slate, brand identity, and business model herself.

EbonyLife produced Fifty, The Governor, and Chief Daddy. In 2018, the company signed a co-production deal with Sony Pictures Television. In June 2020, it signed a multi-title deal with Netflix, making EbonyLife the first African company to do so. “Forbes has recognised her among Africa’s most influential media figures.

What she has built for others is just as significant. In partnership with the Lagos State Government, she established the EbonyLife Creative Academy, which offers free, practical training in filmmaking and media content production. It is open to working professionals and to complete beginners. She has mentored women in media throughout her career and pushed publicly for better funding access for African content creators.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Instagram

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was confirmed as Director-General of the World Trade Organization in February 2021 and took office on March 1, 2021, becoming the first woman and the first African to hold that position. The United States under the Trump administration had opposed her nomination. She gathered international support from WTO member countries until the incoming Biden administration reversed course and her confirmation went through.

She brought 25 years at the World Bank, two terms as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, and a term as Foreign Affairs Minister to that role. As Finance Minister, she published monthly government allocations that had previously been withheld from the public, and refused to approve expenditures she considered corrupt. Her mother was kidnapped in what was widely seen as an attempt to pressure her. She continued in her role regardless.

She has demonstrated, over four decades, that it is possible to hold senior positions in global institutions without softening your positions to make others comfortable. At 71, she continues to advocate for African debt restructuring and fairer trade terms for developing economies.