"Finance, properly designed and governed, is a powerful tool for inclusion; it decides who participates in growth."
For Aishah N. Ahmad, the incoming Chair of the Graça Machel Trust's Expert Leaders' Group (ELG), this belief has guided nearly three decades of work across financial services, public policy, and regulatory leadership. She has long understood that finance is never neutral. It is a system that can widen inequality or unlock opportunity, depending on its design, governance, and moral intent.
Aishah brings to the ELG a leadership philosophy grounded in service, discipline, and accountability. She listens for the human story inside the economic story: the entrepreneur navigating credit barriers, the young woman seeking her first opportunity, and the family building resilience in fragile economies. Her conviction is simple. Inclusive financial systems are not acts of charity; they are instruments of national competitiveness and justice.
Her relationship with the Trust has grown through years of collaboration on women's leadership and financial inclusion, from her work with WIMBIZ to her tenure as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, where she championed data-driven, gender-intentional reforms. The Trust's ethos of practical advocacy and cross-network collaboration mirrors her own. Influence must lead to structural change.
Now, as she steps into the role of ELG Chair, Aishah argues that the moment demands a shift, from advocacy to accountability, and from visibility to measurable systems change.
A new mandate for a new African moment
The global and African economic landscape is changing rapidly. Nations are recalibrating, geopolitics is shifting, and women, especially in finance, are positioned to shape a new chapter of economic governance. Against this backdrop, Aishah sees the ELG's next chapter as both timely and necessary:
"Our collective influence must translate into proof; visible reforms, better data, stronger institutions, and opportunities that reach women where they live and work."
Building on the foundation laid by outgoing Chair Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, three priorities will define her first year.
Three priorities for the year ahead
- Strengthening presence and voice: Women leaders must remain visible in the rooms where Africa's financial and economic architecture is shaped, from continental policy forums to national regulatory spaces. The ELG will deepen its presence across these platforms and help ensure that women's economic participation is treated as a core driver of Africa's resilience and growth.
- Deepening linkages within the Trusts' family: Aishah wants to tighten the connections between the ELG and the Trust's flagship programmes, especially New Faces New Voices (NFNV) and Women Creating Wealth (WCW). When advocacy, policy work, and on-the-ground programmes are aligned, they reinforce one another and create a clearer pathway from evidence to reform, and ultimately to better outcomes for women.
- Aligning the financial sector from the inside out: True inclusion, she insists, happens when institutions themselves evolve. That means promoting more women on boards, encouraging the design of gender-responsive financial products, strengthening accountability frameworks that make progress trackable, and strengthening leadership pipelines so that decision-making tables reflect Africa's demographics and future potential.
Across all three priorities, data will be the anchor. "Throughout this work, data will be our compass. Measuring what matters will keep us honest, focused and transformative," Aishah notes.
Her message to young women watching this journey across the continent is simple: "Your voice belongs in every room where decisions about money and policy are made. Prepare well. Stand firm in your ethics. And use your influence to serve others."
When women rise, systems change. Under Aishah Ahmad's leadership, the Expert Leaders' Group intends to show that inclusion is not only possible; it is scalable, strategic, and indispensable to Africa's economic future.
