#7. Akwaaba to Abidjan: How Three Changemakers Are Driving Inclusion, Digital Skills & Women’s Empowerment in Côte d'Ivoire

In this inspiring episode, AmickyCarol visits Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, to meet three dynamic leaders transforming their communities through financial inclusion, digital skills training, and diversity initiatives.

Marie-Josée Abbet shares how fintech is empowering market women to grow their businesses. Lou Vanié explains why she returned from abroad to champion diversity and inclusion. Geth Maiga reveals how Digifam has trained over 7,000 women entrepreneurs in seven cities.

From unlocking $2 trillion in untapped economic potential to celebrating Abidjan’s warm “Akwaaba” welcome, discover why Côte d'Ivoire is a rising West African powerhouse—and why now is the time to get involved.

Guests & Contact Info

Geth Maiga – Senior Programs Manager & Business Consultant

• Facebook: facebook.com/gmaiga1
• Instagram: instagram.com/gethakhenra
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/geth-semani-akhenra-maiga-9211b4110

Lou Vanié – Founder, LSV Coaching – Organizational Change Consultant

• Website: lsvcoaching.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/louvanie
• Facebook: facebook.com/LouSinforaleVanie

Marie-Josée Abbet – Senior Business Developer & Business Consultant, African Development Bank Group

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marie-josee-abbet-msc-9a8358138
• Facebook: facebook.com/mariejosee.abbet
• Instagram: instagram.com/mariejoseea_

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to World Changers Podcast
• 0:47 Meeting Change Agents in Abidjan
• 1:23 Meet Marie Josee Abbet (MJ)
• 2:06 Meet Lou Vanié
• 4:23 Meet Geth Maiga
• 6:28 Digital Skills and Financial Inclusion
• 9:03 Why Empowering Women Matters
• 11:33 The Diaspora Return Experience
• 15:25 Finding Commons Values and Shared Ivorian Identity
• 18:00 Discovering Abidjan and Economic Opportunities
• 19:27 Closing Thoughts and Contacts
• 23:15 Final Words and Podcast Conclusion

Transcript

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 0:02

Hey World Changers, welcome to your podcast. I'm Amiki Carroll and I travel the world with a sense of adventure and purpose exploring, learning, having fun and meeting remarkable individuals who are transforming their communities and beyond. Join me as we dive into the inspiring journeys of changemakers from every corner of the globe, tuning in weekly for stories that might just change your life, ignite your passion and show you how ordinary people can create extraordinary impact. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on social media at World Changes PC and get ready to take off. Welcome everyone. Really lovely to be here in Côte d'Ivoire, in Abidjan, and to meet you all three of you.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 0:55

Mj, I know really, really well because we worked together. You were just a star performer at Money For you and it broke our hearts when you relocated. I'm really pleased. Of course, you carried on being a world changer. You've gathered a couple of other world changers no surprises there. So can I just start by asking you guys to introduce yourselves, like who you are, a little bit about your background and then what you do you know your work that impacts people.

Marie Josee Abbet : 1:28

So, ladies first, I'll come to you first, mj. Okay, so my name is Marie-Josée Ambé and I have a background in international finance, so what I do here is that I used to work for a fintech where we were designing suitable financial services for people who don't have access to financial services. So we're going to the more crisis to meet people and encourage them to use the digital services. We're going to be more crisis with people and encourage them to use the digital services we could offer to them.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 1:50

I love that, I really like that, and I'm going to come back to why it's so important to make sure that everyone has access to financial services. So let's hold that thought because, as you know, that fits in very nicely to what we do. So can I come to you,

Lou Vanié: 2:05

of course? So my name is Lu, thank you.

Lou Vanié: 2:08

I have a diverse background, but we are here to really focus on what has impacted the life of people.

Lou Vanié: 2:15

I had, I would say, maybe an international kind of career, because my whole life I spent my whole life in Canada almost, and then, after Canada, then I moved to the UK for my master's degree. This is even where I met MJ, and my background has been in organization of development human resources, and one of the key experience that has really changed my way of seeing people and giving people opportunity, changed my way of seeing people and giving people opportunity is when I had that chance to work with the employment services of the province of British Columbia in Canada, and my work was mainly with people with disability, so I was promoting diversity and inclusion in the local organization. So basically, I would go speak to an employer and and tell them how it is important to have people with disabilities. That may be mental disability, physical disability. I had people with autism, so all kinds of disabilities. But what was really rewarding for me is that at the end of the day, you find yourself being able to get a job for someone. End of the day, you find yourself being able to have to get a job for someone, and then you work with the people, with that person, to sustain the job, because one thing is to get a job, the other thing is really to sustain the job and when you have people with such disability, it can be challenging.

Lou Vanié: 3:35

Yeah, so I was really proud of myself having to work with those kind of people and the result that we're having into the community Fantastic. That's really good. I love it because everyone is important. A life equals to a life equals to a life. It's one of the things that I heard Warren Buffett say many years ago and that really struck me, and that's really why I'm so passionate about the work that we do in developing countries, particularly the countries in Africa, because if all lives are equal and all lives matter, then, whether they're disabled, whether they're poor, whatever it is, underserved communities really are worthy also of impact, whatever it is that we can do to bring them and, last but not least, the gentleman with us.

Geth Maiga: 4:24

Yeah, nice to have you. I'm Getmaiga and Ivorian and basically I'm really passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. That's all my path in a professional event in Academico which is really around entrepreneurship and innovation. Currently, I'm working as program manager in the partnership lead for a program for Digifam. Currently, I'm working as program manager and partnership lead for a program called Digifam, where the goal is really to empower women entrepreneurs using digital and technology. So what we do is really upscale them through digital skills so that they can use them in their business and through all my career development, I really think that what makes me wake up every morning is the goal to empower young people and women globally, and I made it for Five years now in different organizations.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 5:15

That's wonderful. Did you start Digifirm?

Geth Maiga: 5:17

Yeah, we started with the founders. So the founder is the USID and the NCC that work to fund this program in partnership with Microsoft. We started this program like three years now ago and we're actually impacting more than 7,000 people.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 5:33

That's amazing. So you're here in Cote. D'ivoire. That's fantastic. And how widespread is it?

Geth Maiga: 5:39

So you're in Abidjan but where else are you working? Yeah, exactly, we think that Côte d'Ivoire is much more than just Abidjan. So what we do is really to democratize digital skills. So we go to other towns in the country to train women. So we're actually in seven cities in Abidjan to train women. So we're actually in seven cities in Abidjan in Boakye, Santedro, Koroge so really in each part of the country and we have different components in the program. You have components to support entrepreneurs, components that support aspiring entrepreneurs, so there's a lot of components that all are complementary to the single, single empowering woman.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 6:19

It's fantastic, because think about the world we live in. How can anyone survive without digital skills? So what you're doing is really important. Okay, so now let's pivot. There are a number of things that you guys have said that really interests me. So we've talked about why digital skills are important. I want to come back to you, mj, with financial skills. Why is it important to make sure that people have those financial skills? What were you hoping to achieve? And then we can talk more widely about why equipping women particularly is important.

Marie Josee Abbet : 6:55

In the global world. Everybody's all connected and then it's really important for people to be on the same level, and I believe that we have different chances. Some people they got chance, they went to school. Some people they don't. And particularly those people, it is important to them to have access to finance, and treasure is a whole thing for them to be able to, to save as well. It's important to them to know that I maybe I don't have the requirement to go to a bank, but I can have a bubaimony account where I can keep my money, for instance. So it's really important for people feel to be financial included to their contribution to the economy as well.

Marie Josee Abbet : 7:35

Yeah, and then I could see that going to work with, for instance, the women in the markets. Trust me, I was shocked to see how much they are earning. We don't make it in the office, trust me. They are making a lot of money out there and I feel like it's important that we can try to contain this and put all that in this environment to allow them to participate in the economy, to allow them to feel like I didn't go to school. But you know what I can work to my openness to take a role, to earn stars.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 8:07

So it was important to us to design those finances and services to include all of them, honestly, the fact that we can include people because, okay, we joke that they make a lot of money, but the reality is that they need education to help them manage the resources they're getting even better.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 8:28

And if they're not part of the system, I guess people, because people are wondering oh, they're doing well, then what's the point? I mean, why is it useful? The reality is they can do better and you can't scale unless you're within the system. And ultimately, no matter what it is you make because we see it over and over again, people who are like oh my goodness, no one ever taught me that I needed to save. So I know, I make quite a lot of money, but I can't for the life of me understand why my circumstances haven't changed after so long. So those financial services are important, but, guys, why is it important to educate women? So, yes, for sure, everyone needs education, but why is it important, particularly to make sure that women have these sorts of education that we've been talking about?

Geth Maiga: 9:18

In Africa, particularly if you look at how the money is spread and how people generate money, that when women have money, they're directly injecting the family and it brings community development. So, particularly for this study, we see that if we want to make change happen quickly, we need to invest in women. We need to educate them to make them able to have this money and injecting the community. Also, I think that last time I read today that the World Bank said the gender gap in Africa is worth like $ I think 2030. So we need really to close the gender gap in order to make things happen and to add these two trillion dollars in our GDP. Yeah, and this particular two element really pushes us to make the difference by educating and upscale woman.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 10:13

Yeah, I think everyone knows. Honestly, like you said, I love it If you equip women, you will have very quick economic development, and that's so true. You see it with Rwanda, I tell people. If you compare the acceleration in the rate of development of Rwanda to other countries, I can only put it down to the fact that, yeah, not just empowering women, but majority of the lawmakers in Rwanda are women more than 60% because of the genocide that happened, obviously, but they're reaping the benefits. Now I'm not suggesting that we go kill the men and communities so that women can take over, but, honestly, any wise government leadership will really think about making sure that they can empower the men to go make a difference.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 11:06

Okay, all right, let's come down to Cote d'Ivoire and Abidjan. Yes, just thinking about it, if somebody wanted to visit this country, what would you say would be some of the unique things about Abidjan that they shouldn't miss? All right, why is it worth coming to? Oh, I think I'll pass these questions to them because I'm still also discovering, because, as I said, I just came back and I'm still. That's something that maybe we can pick up on.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 11:35

They say I mean my background, even though I'm British and I live in the UK. My background is Nigerian and they say that Nigeria's greatest assets and exports to the world is our brains. Too many of us leave the country, too many Africans leave their respective countries. Maybe you can speak to why that is, and I'm really pleased that you went, but you came back. So tell us, what is it that motivated to go and why did you choose to come back? Because you didn't have to?

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 12:09

Yeah, I think most of us we live. Especially at the time when I was living, we didn't have that education system that will give you the feeling that I am learning the right way compared to what is given to you abroad when you go to the schools the way the teaching is given, the way you can even address to your teacher or to your professor, the way the technology that is putting place for you to have the right way of learning, and so, most professor, the way you know the technology that is putting place for you to have the right way of learning, and so most of the time, I think it is the system that makes people go. But one thing I always bear in mind is that you always feel a stranger, no matter how many years you've spent outside, true, word.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 12:53

And so at some point you really want to come back.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 12:56

I was feeling it, I felt like this was the time for me to come back, but then you have to be prepared. It's a plan that you have to do before even coming back. Although I have that background in organizational development and human resources and all of that, when I came back, I'm now managing my own business, so I'm a consultant in change management and all of that. So change management will actually come and target all those situations. Coming to diversity and inclusion people with disability, women inclusion, even religion right, because again, at some places people are still not really willing to include, for example, muslims, muslim. I've been in a recruitment process where I had a lady. She was brilliant, she was good, she came on the top of my list at the end of the recruitment process but my manager didn't want to take her simply because she had. She was wearing a scarf, and this is where you really need to educate our leaders, our you know about why it is important to include everyone. When you go to the West countries, diversity and inclusion will not be that keen on why we should include people from Muslim background and all of that. Maybe we will see more of people disabled physically, mentally and all of that. But when you come to into our environment, it is still. People will not show it, but it is subtle and we still need to address it. So if you are then abroad and you have all that knowledge you've studied, you are brilliant. At some point you need to come back and then contribute to that development, to that inclusion.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 14:35

And nowadays, even when I came back, when I talk about organizational change, it's still abstract to people. What is she talking about? What is change and change? She's talking about change. So I'm now really trying to make it known for people to have those basic knowledge of what change is. And change is not only me working with an organization to have them change their way of working, but change is also the way I even live with my neighbor. Change is even the way I accept everyone with their beliefs. Yeah, so at some point you just have to come back, and I felt that desire to come back and contribute to my country and to to my continent. I believe there's a lot to do. I agree with you. I feel more useful here than when I was there. Okay, okay, okay, all right. Yeah, that's fine, we hear you, we hear you. That's really good. I love what you're doing because you're right, it's the things that we have in common. It's being able to entice people and making them not feel like they're outsiders. That's likely to reduce conflict, isn't it?

Marie Josee Abbet : 15:39

Yeah, yeah. This is one of the main things of why you should come to Adygeo. They are warm, they are all. By coming as Ivorians, like you see here a lot of different nationalities. People are really comfortable, they are really warm, they are really fun, they are really interesting. It's just keeping the soul open to you, be willing to help you with anything, anything, especially when you know that you are a foreigner, yeah, yeah, I love that.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 16:05

I can testify to that, because we went out last night and people were very warm and they were very fun. But and I can tell you what happens in abidjan, casey and I well, yeah, would you like to tell anyone why they should visit abijah? What is there to do? What's there to see?

Geth Maiga: 16:24

exactly and that's like I think that this is also part of our the country's. We have like more than 60 ethnic groups in the country nice and we have to live together. So we learn, since you burn, that you really need to live with people, understand the beliefs and all that stuff. So that's make the life in abidjan really warm and we have this community spirit that everywhere in kuduwa you can see. The key word here it's hospitality and we can translate it. I think you'll see aquaba a lot in in the city and it's welcome in English. So the key word is welcome. So you can see how we are ready to welcome people and to live with them.

Marie Josee Abbet : 17:05

West Africa. We had everything here. The food are amazing.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 17:10

Any kind of food. It was nice, I have to say, if you like to have fun.

Marie Josee Abbet : 17:16

You can go to wherever you want to go. You always see a very place that you know. There's parties all over the city. We have wonderful dishes In fact we are then.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 17:28

Wonderful dishes, and then yeah.

Geth Maiga: 17:30

And if I can add a part of this fun part, we are also a really economical country, actually Stable for like 15 to 16 years old now, with a really big growth when it comes to economic growth. If you want to do businesses as well, this is the place to be. You are the really young population with really talented people.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 17:53

If you want to hire people on time to work for fun, for businesses, this is the place to be that's really good, okay, so, in terms of economic opportunities, what areas, what sectors would you say are the fastest growing or the ones that offer the most opportunities.

Geth Maiga: 18:09

Maybe because I'm working in that environment, I can say that actually, in the front of west africa, abu repos are worried with senegal in some instance, really the place when it's come to innovation, startup and digital. So if you have a business idea, a digital business idea, it's easy here to find people to understand it, to work with you, and there's a lot of IT talented people, but also the environment is actually made for push innovation and push digital, digital and technology.

Marie Josee Abbet : 18:41

So, yeah, it's really one key element this is same as going yeah, a lot of incubators, yeah, yeah. And then also in terms of we have a lot of hotel, yeah, vintage society. So people they brought it. So tourism.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 18:57

Tourism is growing, okay. Tech is growing, okay. Tech is growing, like we thought as well. Agriculture, okay, yeah, it's wonderful. The land is very rich. From what I've seen so far, you know, and gosh, I tried a new fruit that I'd never tried before. She knows Mongosta.

Geth Maiga: 19:16

Okay.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 19:17

She. Okay with it, I enjoyed it. I understand that the season is very short, but I've never seen it anywhere else, or maybe I've never tried it anywhere else. Really good, I was really impressed by that. Guys, look, thank you so much for joining me.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 19:30

It's been a real pleasure being here in Abidjan, côte d'Ivoire, which is in West Africa, chatting to you guys, meeting world changers. So not just coming to the country, but meeting people who are making a difference. How can people find you and what would you like them to know? One last thing I would like people to understand that this is the time for us to really contribute to the success of our environment. The environment is growing and especially for my people abroad, the diaspora, it's also time to come back.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 20:03

We talk about investments, the place for investments, the place for business. It's a place for work, it's a place really for anything. It's true that in your first days when you come, you might you know, you might be struggling a little bit. It's just that time of adaptation and as soon as you accept that, of course, you will find your way, you will find your path and we see how the country or the continent can be a place to be. And now for my business. I am a consultant in change management, and so you can find me on LinkedIn, okay, and our LinkedIn page. I also have a website and my company is LSV Coaching and, yeah, you can find me there. Excellent, we'll make sure that we put everybody's details. What about you, enda?

Marie Josee Abbet : 20:44

Okay. So what I would like to say is really like you are welcome to Abidjan Edentide, this is really the place to be, and then you want to invest. You are welcome to the country and then if you need someone to help you to, apart from my job where I work with FinTech into youth finance and services, I'm also consulting for international organization, for bridge organization that's flighting a newcomer into the country and then meets entrepreneurs. So if you feel like you want to invest here, if you feel like you want team people, you can contract me elsewhere.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 21:18

Wonderful. I know. You've been the perfect hostess, I have to say, ever since I've been here. You said something about the fact that there was a lot of stability, and I had to laugh because, in your mind, 11 years is stability. You know what I mean Exactly. But honestly, I have to also say that I've felt safe since I've been here, and that's one thing that adijan has. You haven't been to so many other countries. I have said this the security is great. There is no problem with that. Um and long may continue. Get last word to you okay, thank you very much.

Geth Maiga: 22:00

I Actually I'm working, I have several hats, but I think that actually following a path to be an education advocate, because I think that, as we say, we really need educating people in order to make change. If you want to find a way to invest in Africa and in education, particularly even if it's in digital skills, green skills, you can contact me and I think that, even if it's not here, you guys that are watching us you can think about how we can contribute to better education in your community as well.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 22:32

Wonderful. I love it. So this is the end of the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. Just before we go, I cried a couple of days ago and, um, something struck me.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 22:43

The person I was interviewing kept cracking her knuckles and I realized, oh, it's so bad. I used to see that a lot in nigeria. Do you guys crack knuckles here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's do it not to cracking our competition minds up. Oh goodness, that's very good. Okay, all right.

AmickyCarol Akiwumi MBE: 23:01

So I don't know what it does. It's a way of dealing with stress as well, for two people. Okay, well, if you've never cracked your nose, you just show me how. So I really hear stress. But whatever you do, try and come to a vision. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of world changes podcast. I Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of World Changes Podcast. I hope you're feeling as inspired as I am by today's conversation. Remember, the power to create change is within each of us. If you were inspired by today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word and inspire even more world changers. And be sure to follow us on social media at World Changers PC, for updates, behind the scenes content and more inspiring stories. Until next time, keep exploring, keep making a difference and remember you can be a world changer.

Humanise Live: 24:02

The World Changes podcast is produced by Humanized Live and presented by Amiki Carroll. Visit theavocadofoundationorg to find out more about how the Avocado Foundation is tackling global inequality through education, stewardship and financial literacy.