The Trust honours Gisèle Yitamben’s decade of service and welcomes Caroline Armstrong as Interim Chairperson of its Networks Steering Technical Committee.

“It has been an honour and a privilege to chair the Steering Committee for such a long and meaningful period. As I step down, my heart is full of gratitude.”

Gisèle Yitamben begins her farewell by thanking the women who kept the networks connected and growing. At the Graça Machel Trust, we join our Founder, Mama Graça Machel, in celebrating her decade of dedicated service. Her contribution shows what lasting network leadership can achieve: greater capacity for other women to act.

An economist and founder of the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs (ASAFE), Gisèle brought to the Trust a practical understanding of what women entrepreneurs in Cameroon need to grow their businesses. Through her leadership of New Faces New Voices (NFNV), she helped connect that local experience with our work across Africa. We value her contribution to building relationships through which women share knowledge, shape priorities and support one another’s businesses.

“Under Gisèle’s leadership, the Trust has continued to expand its Women in Finance networks across the continent.”

– Shiphra Chisha, Chief Executive Officer.

Gisèle has provided leadership to NFNV’s Steering Committee and the Trust’s Networks Steering Technical Committee (STC), while contributing to the development of networks in agribusiness, enterprise, media and energy.

Practical support for women entrepreneurs

Her willingness to keep learning shaped that leadership. In her sixties, she returned to university to study digital finance. In Cameroon, Gisèle and her team developed a mobile inventory tool to help entrepreneurs keep clearer stock records. Young women trained business owners to use it, earning income and gaining experience themselves.

Gisèle Yitamben (second from left), Country Director of NFNV Cameroon, shares a moment with fellow network leaders and Graça Machel Trust colleagues at the 2025 Women Creating Wealth Summit. Alongside her, from left, are Penny Mapoma (NFNV Zambia); Shiphra Chisha (now the Trust’s CEO); Maureen Sumbwe (Zambian Federation of Associations of Women in Business); Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula (Expert Leaders Group); and Korkor Cudjoe (the Trust’s entrepreneurship programme).

COVID-19 tested the networks’ ability to stay connected as activities slowed and gatherings stopped. Gisèle recalls members adapting and holding on to their shared purpose. NFNV Cameroon developed a complementary community currency to support trade when cash was scarce. The chapter also worked with the Ministry of Commerce to advance women’s access to public procurement.

She is clear about who sustained the work: “None of this would have been possible without the Steering Committee members and network leaders who gave their time, ideas, and energy so generously.” Her pride rests in their ability to resolve disagreements with mutual respect and build networks that endure.

How networks turn priorities into action

The Trust works through five sector-based networks. NFNV advances financial inclusion and leadership; the Network for African Businesswomen (NABW) supports enterprise growth; and the African Women in Agribusiness Network strengthens access to agricultural markets and resources. The Clean Energy and Climate Action network supports women’s leadership driving adaptation and innovation in green energy access and climate response, and the African Women in Media Network challenges current perceptions and mindsets about Africa’s women and children and how they are portrayed in the media.

Alongside them, the Expert Leaders’ Group brings senior financial leaders together to advance inclusive financial systems. Together, our networks and programmes support a presence across 20 African countries.

Members’ priorities help shape programmes such as Women Creating Wealth. Developed in response to challenges identified by NABW members, it combines business training, coaching and mentorship with connections to markets and finance. NFNV chapters in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and Zambia through the Zambian Federation of Associations of Women in Business (ZFAWIB), have helped deliver the programme alongside our country teams.

Welcoming Caroline Armstrong

Gisèle will continue her association with the Trust through the STC Advisory Board. Her message makes clear her appreciation for those who supported the work: “To every member, partner, and friend of GMT: thank you for your trust, patience, and support.”

As Gisèle steps down from the role of Chairperson, we welcome Caroline Armstrong as Interim Chairperson of the Networks Steering Technical Committee, effective 1 September 2026.

Caroline has chaired NFNV Kenya’s Board of Trustees since 2022, bringing more than four years of leadership within the network. Under her chairpersonship, the chapter has worked with women entrepreneurs and insurers to develop insurance solutions around women’s business needs. This experience connects her financial-sector expertise with the practical work of leading a country network.

From left: Caroline Armstrong, Chair of New Faces New Voices Kenya; Aishah N. Ahmad, Chair of the Expert Leaders Group; Mrs Graça Machel; and Dr Susan Koech, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, during a private meeting in Nairobi in 2025.

She also brings 30 years of financial services experience, both executive and Board, and 12 years of Board-level leadership across multiple industries. She joined NFNV to be part of driving much-needed change and inclusion in the financial services sector so that women have the opportunities, access and policies they need in order to thrive in their careers and businesses.

During her initial one-year term, Caroline will work with committee members across the continent and the Trust’s Secretariat to support in-country network growth, success and knowledge transfer across countries and networks, continue the expansion of the networks’ footprint across Africa and to advance the Network Strategy.

“Gisèle set a beautiful example of service with passion, heart and we are all grateful to her for her service. I not only intend to build on that, but to serve my fellow committee members and networks with a focus on unification, strengthening and a focus on delivering for our fellow African women who are at the heart of what we all do. Working alongside my peers, my immediate focus is to enfranchise all country networks and support the implementation of the Network Strategy while embedding governance and enhancing our collaborative delivery capacity so that we raise the collective benchmark of what the networks and the Trust can achieve across our continent.”

– Caroline Armstrong, Interim Chairperson of the Networks Steering Technical Committee

Read our Women’s Leadership for Financial Inclusion and Economic Recovery report to explore how Caroline Armstrong in Kenya and Gisèle Yitamben in Cameroon have worked with their networks to advance women’s financial inclusion.