The Queen Consort of Warri Kingdom, Her Majesty, Olori Atuwatse III, delivered a keynote handle on the 2025 FLAIR Summit in London, calling on African nations to consciously recognise and elevate ladies’s management in any respect ranges of society from houses and markets to statehouses and boardrooms.
Talking throughout a high-level session of the First Girls of Africa Impression and Resilience (FLAIR) Summit, the Queen emphasised that Africa’s development will stay incomplete except ladies who already play central roles in households, economies, and communities are totally empowered and included in coverage, management, and nation-building efforts.
The occasion drew dignitaries, together with the First Girls of Oyo and Kwara States, lawmakers, traders, and international improvement companions.
The summit featured unique engagements at iconic venues such because the UK Home of Lords, Home of Commons, the London Inventory Alternate, and the Royal Leonardo Resort.
In her keynote titled ‘Elevating the Function of Ladies in Africa’s Improvement,” Olori Atuwatse shared a deeply private expertise from her life.
“Shortly after my father handed, I, his firstborn, was instructed to observe from the sidelines. ‘There’s a distinction between a firstborn and a primary son,’ they instructed me,” she recounted.
The second, she mentioned, was a reminder of how conventional norms nonetheless try to scale back ladies’s roles no matter their {qualifications} or achievements.
That painful expertise, she defined, reaffirmed her objective as a frontrunner and strengthened her drive to advocate for gender fairness. “Nothing, not privilege, not age, not achievement insulates ladies from the restrictions society tries to impose.”
Olori Atuwatse praised current milestones in African management, highlighting Namibia’s President-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan. “For the primary time, Africa has two sitting feminine heads of state. It’s exceptional. And it reveals that change is feasible.”
She emphasised that African ladies have typically led with out titles or applause. “In Warri and throughout Africa, ladies are breadwinners, entrepreneurs, academics, and caregivers. They’re birthers, binders, and builders of communities. But, folks nonetheless ask whether or not ladies can lead. What a drained query?”
Her speech careworn that Africa’s future will depend on mobilising this untapped management power. “Africa can’t thrive on the efforts of some outstanding feminine leaders alone,” she mentioned. “We want grassroots ladies, these with out formal energy seen, heard, and empowered.”
By means of her EstablishHer mentorship programme in Nigeria, Olori Atuwatse has been serving to ladies recognise their worth and unlock their potential.
“We don’t make them leaders,” she mentioned. “We assist them see they already are.”
She cited financial analysis suggesting that if African international locations shut the gender management hole by 2043, they might raise 53 million folks out of utmost poverty and enhance GDP per capita by 5 %. “The influence could be staggering,” she mentioned.
To realize this, Olori Atuwatse laid out a three-part framework: Mentor, Reform, and Empower.
“This work isn’t just for ladies. Progress strikes sooner once we work collectively fathers, husbands, conventional leaders, policymakers, and allies. Whether or not you’re a CEO selling a younger supervisor or a father encouraging his daughter, you might be a part of this motion,” she mentioned.
The Queen’s keynote was one of the vital applauded displays on the summit. It resonated with ongoing debates throughout Africa round gender inclusion, cultural reform, and financial resilience.
The 2025 FLAIR Summit hosted a variety of classes centered on ladies’s well being, entrepreneurship, governance, training, and innovation
Panels included audio system from throughout Africa’s private and non-private sectors, the African Union, and worldwide organisations.
Individuals additionally explored actionable coverage suggestions for rising feminine illustration in politics and enterprise. These included entry to credit score for women-owned enterprises, reforms in inheritance and land rights, and gender-sensitive budgeting by African governments.
In closing her handle, Olori Atuwatse issued a robust problem: “Allow us to construct an Africa the place nobody says, ‘There’s a distinction,’ to disclaim a lady’s management. Allow us to unlock the ability already buzzing in Africa’s houses, farms, labs, and workshops. Our future will depend on it.”
Additionally, The Queen Consort, Olori Atuwatse III, was honored on the iconic London Inventory Alternate for her contribution to ladies improvement and Aptitude Summit 2025 in London.
The award was introduced to Her Majesty by Jennifer Thomas, Head of Range, Fairness and Inclusion of London Inventory Alternate Group.
Because the summit concluded, organisers praised her message as a rallying name that might assist information improvement efforts throughout Africa within the years forward.
