On Saturday, 31 October 2026, women leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, and professionals from across Africa will gather at the Glitz Event Centre in Oniru, Lekki, Lagos, for the 360 Woman Africa Annual Conference. Themed “THE SHIFT: Designing Women’s Relevance in an AI-Intelligent World,” the event marks a milestone in the organisation’s decade-long journey of equipping African women for leadership and enterprise.
Registration is open, with early-bird pricing available until 30 August 2026. Organisers expect more than 1,500 delegates, building on the strong turnout of previous editions.
A Decade of Building Women’s Potential
360 Woman Africa is a personal leadership and enterprise development non-profit founded in 2016 by Dr. Yvonne Chioma Ofodile. Its mission is to enhance gender equality and inclusion by equipping women with the personal, leadership, and business skills needed for global relevance.
The annual conference began earlier (around 2015–2016, initially known in some years as the Woman Thrive Conference) and has grown into one of Nigeria’s most significant platforms for women in leadership, entrepreneurship, and social impact. It consistently draws around 1,000 participants on average, with the 2025 edition (themed “Elevate: Building Women of Vision, Influence, and Impact”) attracting approximately 1,350 attendees at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Beyond the conference, the organisation runs skill-development programmes (including a mini-MBA-style Enterprise Skill Development Programme), networking events, mentoring, and the Women in Business Empowerment Fund. The fund has completed multiple grant cycles, awarding millions of naira in equity-free support to women-led businesses. In 2025 alone, ₦10 million was disbursed to four entrepreneurs selected from thousands of applications.
The work aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Over the years, 360 Woman Africa reports having trained, coached, or mentored more than 15,000 women.
Why “The Shift” and Why AI Now?
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant possibility; it is already reshaping industries, economies, and the nature of work and influence. The 2026 conference asks a pointed question: Who will design the rules, tools, and narratives of this new era?
Organisers frame the gathering as a space for women who refuse to be spectators. The programme aims to help participants interrogate algorithms, claim agency in technological change, and build relevance that is strategic, durable, and distinctly informed by women’s experiences and leadership styles. The stated ambition is clear: every seat should hold a woman who shows up not just to witness the future, but to author it.
Expected focus areas include AI fluency and practical skills workshops, leadership in an intelligent economy, business and finance applications of new tools, intentional networking across sectors, and conversations on how women can remain (or become) architects rather than subjects of technological disruption.
Keynote and Programme Highlights
The confirmed keynote speaker is Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, one of Africa’s most respected business leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, and advocates for women’s advancement. She is the founder of The Chair Centre Group, the first female chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, a former director of Cadbury Nigeria, and a recipient of the Forbes Woman Africa Chairperson Award, among other honours. Her presence signals the calibre of conversation the organisers intend.
Additional speakers and programme details are scheduled for release in the coming weeks. Past editions have featured leaders such as Fela Durotoye, Bunmi Lawson, Osayi Alile, and Beatrice Eneh, combining high-level keynotes with practical panels and grant announcements.
Delegate experiences are structured in tiers:
- Regular Delegate (early bird ₦99,999): Full access to sessions and workshops, networking, digital certificate, resource pack, and community membership.
- VIP Delegate (early bird ₦149,999): Front-row seating, exclusive VIP access and meetings, premium gifts and AI toolkit, featured directory listing, personalised certificate, and lifetime content library access.
- Group packages for five (regular or VIP) offer discounts and the chance for cohorts to experience the day together.
The 2025 conference demonstrated the model’s strength: large attendance, substantive grant capital flowing to real businesses, and conversations that moved beyond inspiration toward execution, scaling in volatile economies, leadership resilience, access to finance, and building both impact and profitability.
Marking roughly ten years of consistent work, the 2026 edition positions itself as bigger in scale and more deliberately future-oriented. By centering AI, the organisers acknowledge that the next chapter of women’s economic and leadership power in Africa will be shaped by who masters, governs, and innovates with emerging technologies.
How to Participate
The conference takes place on Saturday, 31 October 2026, from 9:00 AM at the Glitz Event Centre, Oniru, Lekki, Lagos. Early-bird rates end 30 August 2026; seats are limited. Registration and ticket options are available via the official site (360womanafrica.com/conf2026). Enquiries can be directed to conference@360womanafrica.com.
For women who see the AI era not as a threat but as an opportunity to redesign relevance, leadership, and enterprise on their own terms, 31 October offers a focused day of learning, connection, and declaration: the shift is not something that happens to you then, you are the shift.
