The Standard Bank Top Women Conference 2026 closed on 9 September at the Sandton Convention Centre after two days that pushed past inspiration toward hard economic argument, naming what stands between women and the growth they're already generating, and what it will take, in policy and in practice, to remove it. Held under the theme "Her Power. Africa's Future. Amplifying Women-Led Growth," the conference opened with a statistic few in the room could shrug off: the World Bank estimates that between $15tn and $30tn in lifetime earnings and productivity is lost globally because millions of girls never complete 12 years of quality education.
The economic case, made plainly
Hon. Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube, Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training, opened the conference's programme of addresses with "Education and Employability: Actively Empowering the Next Generation of Women." Citing McKinsey research showing Africa could add US$316 billion to its GDP by matching the continent's best-performing nation on gender parity, and a Mastercard Foundation study putting a further $287bn, and 23 million jobs, on the table by 2030, the Deputy Minister was direct about the cost of inaction: young women's share of Africa's GDP fell from 18% in 2000 to just 11% in 2022.
The address named the pain points the conference spent two days working through:
- Safety and economic independence are linked.
An educated, economically independent woman has more power to walk away from harm, positioning skills development as inseparable from the fight against gender-based violence and femicide.
- STEM stereotyping is costing the country talent.
Steering girls away from engineering, coding, robotics and AI was named as "chauvinism dressed up as common sense," not tradition, and a stereotype that has cost South Africa generations of capability.
- CSI fatigue needs to end.
Dube-Ncube called on private-sector partners to move beyond once-off sponsorship toward sustained, multi-year commitments tied to measurable skills outcomes: bursaries linked to work-integrated learning, mentorship that becomes sponsorship, and procurement pipelines that open real contracts to women-owned enterprises.
2 days, four throughlines
- Day 1: Building the foundations, then testing what growth actually costs. After welcome addresses from Ralf Fletcher (CEO, Topco Media), Cooper and Nonkululeko Dlamini (CFO, Telkom Group), Dr Naledi Pandor, Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, delivered a keynote on leading with intention and rejecting the false choice between ambition and wellbeing. The day moved through sessions on turning networks into business value, digital tools as a growth lever, and a candid panel, hosted by Vouch, on the overcommitment and blind spots that scaling a business rarely warns founders about in advance. The day closed with a decade-retrospective conversation among past Top Women Entrepreneur award winners on what happens after recognition.
- Day 2: From representation to systems change. Anne Githuku-Shongwe, UNAIDS Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, opened the day drawing leadership lessons from the global HIV response, arguing that lasting change depends on coalitions, not individual heroes. Sessions that followed confronted the future of women's entry-level work under AI and automation, and workplace cultures that enable harassment and gender-based violence, before turning to what happens after funding and representation: panels hosted by MultiChoice, Harmony Gold and Sanofi examined how innovation funding, inclusive leadership and trust-based cultures translate into real economic participation. Taelo Mojapelo, CEO of bp Southern Africa, spoke on building structured pathways for women into senior decision-making roles. Later, a candid conversation with two executives from Africa's largest law firm examined why women, who make up 57% of new entrants to the legal profession, hold only 28% of its executive leadership.
From access to action
True to its promise to hand delegates something more concrete than a business card, the conference ran:
- Business Matchmaking: pre-arranged introductions between women-led businesses, corporates and decision-makers.
- PitchPower Networking: two-minute lightning pitches from entrepreneurs to a room of peers, partners and investors.
- The Pitching Den: Grand Finale of the EmpowHER Summit: the three 2026 regional EmpowHER winners, Lesego Seloane (Ronewa Creations), Kiki Sepuru (Afrique360 Solutions) and Refilwe Moreno Barahona (Tsogomath), competed for the Top Women EmpowHER Entrepreneur of the Year Award in front of judges Kume Luvhani, Andra Nel and Vera Nagtegaal.
The two days closed with a networking cocktail function.
What's next: the Top Women Awards
The conversation continues on 3 December 2026, when the Top Women Awards recognise the businesses, leaders and entrepreneurs driving women-led growth across the continent.
Book your seat now: https://get.topbusinesswomen.co.za/sbtop-women-awards-/
About the Standard Bank Top Women Conference
The Standard Bank Top Women Conference is proudly supported by Standard Bank, Telkom, KFC Africa, Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited, MultiChoice, bp Southern Africa, Vouch SA, Sanofi, ENS and Ctrack.
