October 3, 2022
WoEgypt

In its sixth edition, the prestigious annual AWIEF Awards recognise, honour, and celebrate women entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders in Africa across various industry sectors for their achievements and contribution to the continent’s inclusive economic growth and social development.

Five Egyptian women were selected among 24 finalists from 12 African countries: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Sahar Salama, Founder, Group Chair and Former CEO at TPAY Mobile |TECH ENTREPRENEUR AWARD

Sahar Salama founded TPAY MOBILE in 2014 with the aim of leveraging her extensive experience to transform cross-border micro payments in the MEA region. Sahar led TPAY MOBILE for the last 8 years where she was responsible for TPAY MOBILE’s strategy, mission, vision and overall execution/performance. 

Today, TPAY is the leader in mobile payments in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META). TPAY MOBILE provides a full service, end-to-end solution that makes it easy for digital service providers – including merchants and game developers – to access and accept payments from consumers in more than 30 countries in the region.

Sahar has over 25 years of experience in platforms development, and product development in hi-Tech industries. Prior to TPAY MOBILE, Sahar spent 13 years working for one of the 5 global tech firms based in Germany that served the Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) industry delivering its solutions to the top brands of the world producing electronics spanning from airplanes, cars down to consumer electronics across the globe. She later worked for a telecom group focused on emerging markets for another eight years working in different roles and within different subsidiaries.

Sahar holds an MBA from Imperial College London and has a BSc. in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo.

Dalia Ibrahim, CEO of Nahdet Masr Publishing Group | Life Time Achievement Award 

Dalia studied BA at the AUC in Cairo and graduated with honors. She received two Master’s degrees in Public Administration and Executive Business Management. She led several positions in Nahdet Masr and succeeded in creating 3 new companies operating under its umbrella. Lately she launched a venture capital company to support startups specializing in Educational technology. Dalia received many local and international awards. 

Nahdet Masr group, publishes hundreds of books, Disney magazines for kids, National Geographic, and Al Adwaa educational books. Nahdet Masr group have also participated in the launch of Speak Arabic Initiative to teach Egyptian children abroad to speak Arabic. 

 Manal Amin, Founder and CEO of Arabize for Content and Localization | | Life Time Achievement Award 

A pioneer in the field of language technology in Egypt, Manal Amin has 30-year experience in the field of translation, localization and documentation. She founded Arabize in 1994 to meet the need for high-standard professional Arabic localization services.Arabize is a leading content and localization company in the Middle East; helping international organizations extend their product distribution to new markets. To date, Arabize has served 250 world-class clients from around the world, accomplishing over 1400 projects yearly.

Amin has also mentored many generations of localizers and technical writers and established the first localization and content training center in Egypt. She won the African Information and Communication Technical (ICT) Champion award in 2013 for her achievements in the IT. Services Sector In September 2014, she was ranked 77th among the 200 Most Powerful Women in the Middle East by Forbes Magazine .

Amin is currently on the Advisory Board of the School of Continuing Education, at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She also serves on the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) board of directors.

Nadine Farrag, Founder & CEO of Farahy, Your One-Stop-Shop For All Your Wedding’s Needs | Young Entrepreneur Award 

Nadine Farrag is an experienced marketing professional who has worked both locally and globally in several different industries including telecom, education, and healthcare. She graduated from The American University in Cairo, in 2012, with two Bachelor’s degrees in Marketing and Journalism with Highest Honors and has ever since been very passionate about branding and communication. At a very young age, Nadine started exploring the world and has developed a fascination for traveling and learning about new cultures.

The planning for her business started in 2016 but the actual launch happened in August 2020. The idea of Farahy came to Nadine after seeing how difficult and painful the wedding planning process is while trying to help her friends plan out their weddings. So many details to plan, the information is scattered all over the place, and it’s the same pain for every single couple.

Because of Nadine’s extensive travels, this made her wonder “what if there was a wedding advisor just like Trip Advisor?” A hub with all the information, customer reviews, etc. A place that could be your 24/7 free personal digital assistant. And from that idea Farahy was born.

Mona Al Adawy, Founder & CEO, GeoEnergy Petroleum Services | ENERGY ENTREPRENEUR AWARD

Mona Al Adawy is the founding owner and managing director for GeoEnergy Petroleum Services company. Her areas of expertise include business management, training, consulting as well as business management, geoscience training and consulting as well as over 18 years of experience in oil and gas data management projects. 

GeoEnergy is a well-established diversified services provider to the oil and gas industry in Middle East and Africa since 2009. It provides integrated geoscience solutions and services to assess exploration and development opportunities, and significantly reduce exploration risks, costs and cycle time. 

GeoEnergy has a proven track record with providing services to more than 66 oil and gas companies in the Middle East and Africa. 

Al Adawy holds a BSC in Geology and MSC in Carbonate Reservoir Characterization in Faculty of Science, Cairo University, a Global Business Diploma in Marketing from ESLSCA Business School of France and an MBA in Strategic Management from South Wales University, UK. In addition, she has a certificate in Women’s Entrepreneurship from eCornell University. 

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