Career Christine Sesay Journey Financial education for women’s entrepreneurship

Christine Sesay is the president of Africa’s Moneypreneur. A financial education platform set up in Sierra Leone to `make a difference ».

With a background in finance, Christine Sesay, originally from Sierra Leone, lived and worked in Europe as an accountant for ten years before deciding to return to her continent.This Repat, as  she now called, wanted to be useful. « I came back to work with an NGO. I started working in Niger where I stayed around 3 years before I returned to Sierra Leone. Which is an already fragile country that will also have to cope with the Ebola epidemic between 2014 and 2016, which caused nearly 4,000 deaths out of more than 14,000 recorded cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics. Throughout this period, Christine will remain in the country, despite the crisis. « Sierra Leone is my home. I was devastated to see how events had worsened in such a short time with the disease infiltrating the country. Leaving it then would have been the easy way out. But then, what would I tell my children in the future? “I was devastated to see how events had worsened in such a short time with the disease infiltrating the country. Leaving it  would have been the easy way out. But then, what would I tell my children in the future?”

« A problem which is more African than feminine »

« In 2016, I decided it was time to do something different. Different in the sense that in all the countries I visited, I have seen women and the way they do business and struggle. With Ebola, a lot of companies, a lot of middle-class people, left. The economy was broken. Most entrepreneurs had a hard time surviving.” It is in this context that the idea of Africa’s Moneypreneur was born. « It is a platform that teaches effective financial strategies that support the lifestyle that women entrepreneurs aspire to and merit. That’s why I want to talk to them about their money and finances, » said Christine. I wanted to put in place a framework where we are able to help women better plan their budgets. For Christine, if the problem of access to funding is not limited to women, they are certainly the ones who have the most obstacles. Especially for management issues.

« It’s more of an African problem than a women’s problem. These women don’t really know how to spend their money. Often they don’t even have bank accounts.

And in case they get funding, the money is badly managed. But if an investor is interested in their idea, if he has no visibility on the financial management of the company, he will be reluctant ». This is where its platform comes in, Africa’s Moneypreneur helps in the daily management of these structures.

« This platform has helped these business leaders to understand, break down, step by step, make the right decisions »

« At the moment, I work with about 50 women for whom we manage the accounting. With these 50 women over the course of a year, we have made real progress in their businesses. How did we get them to make better financial decisions? This platform has helped these business leaders understand, break down, step by step, to make the right decisions. In order to get funding, that’s the ultimate goal.”