Naasu Fofanah

Naasu Genevieve Fofanah is an entrepreneur and author with extensive gender and global public policy experience. An award-winning women’s and girls’ rights activist, she has championed controversial issues globally. She launched Susue Women’s Finance during the COVID-19 pandemic to influence government policy on women’s business and access to finance. Susue Women’s Finance and Sierra Leone Commercial Bank formed the Women’s Bank Initiative to offer low-interest loans to female entrepreneurs. The Bank of Sierra Leone Financial Literacy Working Group elected Naasu Co-Chair in 2022. Naasu previously served as Sierra Leone’s first Special Gender Adviser to ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma. She made gender equality and women’s (GEWE) a priority in the National Strategy Document-Agenda for Prosperity (2013 -2018). GEWE was then expanded into a separate Policy and recently became landmark legislation (GEWE Act 2022) by the current President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio. Naasu became the first Sierra Leonean to represent West Africa at UNECA’s Women and Development Bureau. She also served as Vice Chairperson and technical advisor on the Common African Position Post-2015 Development Agenda. Naasu holds an EMPA from NYU/UCL (Pentland Scholar 2018), an MA from Institute of Education-UCL, and a BSc (Hons) from Westminster.