Aisha Babangida: Championing Women’s Empowerment and Advancing Girl-Child Education Across Africa

When some people discuss charitable donations and foundations, rarely do they gush about the work of Aisha Babangida. And that is because they are unaware of the sheer scale and precision of her contributions, both to women’s empowerment and girl-child education across Africa.

Lady Aisha founded Egwafin Microfinance Bank in 2016. It is a licensed institution that gives microloans, credit, and banking services to small-scale market women and others who cannot get them from commercial banks.

 The bank is one of four organisations she founded or leads, each with a defined function.

The Better Life Programme for the African Rural Woman (BLPARW) was founded in 1987 by Maryam Babangida, during the military administration of her husband, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. It was conceived to improve the social, economic, and educational circumstances of rural women, acknowledging that rural women are central to Nigeria’s farming economy, yet many have limited access to finance, education, and infrastructure.

Aisha took over in 2009, after her mother’s death and 22 years after the programme began. Under her, it runs adult literacy, vocational training, agricultural development, cooperative societies, youth empowerment, and educational support, and has added financial literacy, business skills, and links to funding.

The Women Enterprise Alliance (WenA), which she founded in 2018, invests in and mentors early-stage companies and small and medium-sized enterprises led by women across Nigeria and Africa. Her initiatives train cohorts of 1,000 women entrepreneurs at a time on building sustainable business plans.

The Tasnim Foundation, which she also founded, concentrates on girl-child education for girls from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds. It funds scholarships, builds small community schools and rehabilitates orphanages, and has supported healthcare facilities, vulnerable children, and displaced communities.

The programme Aisha inherited trains women in business skills, while the bank she opened in 2016 and the alliance she added in 2018 supply credit and investment. 

The AIB Founders’ Award, which she hosts, gives direct corporate support to emerging African businesses.

These are registered or licensed bodies with set functions, so their work can be checked. 

The soft-spoken lady continues to direct partnerships with government and international development groups through the Women Development Centre in Abuja, and the programmes remain active.