At the end of August 2017, an article in the French economics and business magazine Capital hit like a bombshell. This special edition, dedicated to French start-ups, didn’t go unnoticed. Not a single female was among the line-up of highly promising entrepreneurs; those with the potential to make it among the heavyweights at international level. Social media had a field day with the story, creating a buzz that was spurred on by feminist associations, amongst a chorus of angry jeers.

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Nebeday enables Senegalese women from rural areas to obtain new forms of income

Women work hard. All day long, they are busy caring for others, creating new knowledge and ideas, solving problems, building our world, and contributing to our economies and societies in endless ways.

33-year-old Emilie Hawlena wants to create synergies between women who share an entrepreneurial spirit, to help them break into the complex, exciting and sometimes hostile arena that is starting one’s own business.

Wafts of fresh mint pass through the sticky air, the ground is littered with cut-off bottles from which other aromatic herbs peek out, zigzagging tables laden with plant pots lead up to a building covered in hanging containers—all sprouting luscious greenness. This building is Centre d’écoute et d’encadrement pour le développement durable (Centre for Support and Training in Sustainable Development), more commonly known as Ceedd. The centre, founded in 2005 in the city of Thies, seventy kilometres east of the capital Dakar, provides microcredit and training in micro gardening to women from deprived urban settlements.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030. Around the world, women and men were invited to pledge their utmost efforts in achieving workplace gender parity by 2030. Sadly, in many parts of the world this remains an ambitious plan, notably in our native Nigeria. Walk into any boardroom in downtown Lagos or Abuja and it will be overwhelmingly male-dominated. Just what is stopping our Nigerian sisters from breaking the glass ceiling?

Manisha Malvade was 21 when her mother died of cancer. “Mother’s death shook me,” she said. “But I had to help my family survive.” Her father, alcoholic and unemployed, was of no help. It fell solely upon her to support her five other siblings.

It’s in the northern outskirts of Ouagadougou, in Tampouy, that we met up with Elisabeth Delma, founder of the Adaja Centre. Despite her discretion and modesty when speaking about her work, Delma; a woman well into her sixties, is a key figure in the development and promotion of Faso Dan Fani (attire from traditional handwoven cotton cloth).

Sometimes, you have to take the mountain to Mohammed. Just ask iSocial, a groundbreaking programme that involves entrepreneurs delivering vital information and services to isolated communities throughout Bangladesh. In a gender-defying feat, the entrepreneurs are tech-savvy young women—who travel on bicycles.

HSBC Bangladesh has recognised five local exporters for their leadership in brightening the country's image and contributing to the nation's sustainable growth.

Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh on Tuesday organised a daylong workshop to enlighten senior bankers on global financial crime risks.

Expressing the hope to bag $ 5 billion export earnings from the leather, leather goods and footwear sector out of the total export earnings of $60 billion as per the Vision 2021, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said two more leather industrial estates will be set up in Rajshahi and Chittagong divisions to flourish the sector.

Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel sold a half-billion-dollar stake in its mobile tower business Tuesday to help shrink its debts as it

The telecom industry has regained its growth momentum, as the number of new mobile connections has increased 18.16 percent year-on-year to 14.07 crore in September this year.

Seven directors of the privately-run Social Islami Bank Limited resign from their posts on “personal ground”.

Md Tariqul Azam has recently joined Standard Bank as additional managing director, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

The National Board of Revenue is set to waive the import duty and taxes on electronic cash registers (ECRs) in a bid to encourage

The government yesterday honoured 131 exporters with CIP (commercially important person) cards for their extraordinary performance in 2014.

Handset vendors are now gearing up for the rollout of 4G service in Bangladesh such that customers can enjoy the fastest data service as soon as it becomes available in the first quarter of 2018.