African Excellence Awards 2026 24 Most Empowering Women’s Leadership & Capacity-Building Organisation 2026 Born from the story of pain and purpose of its founder, Lolita Ejiofor, AccelerateHER Africa offers faith-based, purpose-driven leadership coaching for women in Nigeria and beyond. Blending coaching and mentorship with training and accelerator programmes, as well as offering a whole lot more, AccelerateHER Africa provides pathways to impact and growth. We spoke with Lolita for more on her work, following AccelerateHER Africa’s recognition in this year’s edition of the African Excellence Awards. For more than 25 years, Lolita Ejiofor worked in the corporate sphere, achieving goals, titles, and all of the other metrics that people believe go hand in hand with ‘success’. Yet, in the same breath, Lolita was slowly diminishing her own self-worth. Things got so bad that she grew increasingly silent, until she finally found the courage to walk away. What followed has been a journey of faith, with Lolita empowering both young women navigating the corporate sphere and older women who feel restless and seek something new from their careers but are too afraid to make that leap on their own. AccelerateHER Africa covers both of these bases across its programmes, as well as through the She Who Accelerates Community and the W.E W.I.N (Women Encouraging Women in Navigation) Podcast. Since the podcast was launched in October last year, it has been listened to in more than 70 countries worldwide, and guests from every corner of the map have applied to be on it. Similarly, Lolita explained: “The She Who Accelerates Community just formed in June 2026, and it already has over 200 women aged 40 and under benefiting from training, coaching, webinars, and masterclasses provided by both AcceleratHER and its partners.” The like-minded, impact-driven organisations that AccelerateHER Africa is proud to partner with include Leap Africa, Mindful Village, and Digital African Women. And, together with these partners, AccelerateHER Africa has provided dozens of mentorship programmes and facilitated numerous leadership accelerations, all through a unique approach that is affordable, flexible, and allows women to progress at whatever pace they are comfortable with. Making this all the more impressive is that the organisation is still a young one, yet these initiatives highlight a clear determination to support women as they step out of the rut and into their purpose. Outside of its usual programmes, AccelerateHER Africa has achieved this through the international youth empowerment sponsorships, digital inclusion projects, and even a workshop for women in senior and middle management leadership. “We provided a workshop for women in senior and middle management leadership in December 2025 at Infant Jesus Academy, women who have now found their voices and add significant value, as demonstrated by their midyear performance reviews.” All of these initiatives and outcomes align with AcceleratHER’s mission, which is to accelerate the rise of African women through growth rooted in equity, smart governance, and inclusive innovation. This means building a powerful network of female leaders across Africa, driving transformation through collaborations, amplifying impact through mentorship, and ensuring the next of generation women are empowered and ready to lead. Encouraging women to lead themselves before they try to lead others, AcceleratHER began with Lolita’s own story, and that is what draws people in. Lolita told us that she has not had a lull in her work since starting the organisation late last year. There has been a willingness from those around her to support the cause, and this is why Lolita has found establishing connections with the partner organisations mentioned above so easy. On the back of this, the organisation is set to participate in and collaborate with Leap Africa’s Leadership Accelerator Programme in Kenya this month, with the aim of the event being to support young African women looking to make their mark. Similarly, AcceleratHER is the co-curator of Coffee and Conversations, another such event, which also has its next meeting sometime this August. Finally, with the W.E W.I.N Podcast continuing to grow, Lolita is excited to welcome more guests who can discuss their stories and inspire women. Looking ahead to the longer term, Lolita told us of the organisation’s plans to provide executive coaching for companies keen to benefit from empowering women to lead and boost a gender equitable culture. She added: “We will continue to explore further collaborations and partnerships, which will give us more scale, reach, visibility, and, most of all, impact.” Humbly accepting her title in the African Excellence Awards 2026, we invite Africa’s female entrepreneurs to find out more about Lolita and AccelerateHER Africa below. Contact: Lolita Ejiofor Company: AccelerateHER Africa Web Address: accelerateherafrica.org
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