As technology evolves, new developments continue to drive change and innovation in industries playing catch-up to an ever-changing world. With these advancements in mind, a group of African women legal practitioners and innovators have set up platforms that sit at the intersection of legal and digital, which have historically struggled to bridge the gender gap. They seek to serve, foster justice and equity, connect clients and lawyers, help entrepreneurs navigate Africa’s business landscape, often fraught with bureaucracy, and revolutionise the legal system.

Rashida Abdulai, Founder & CEO Strand Sahara (African/African Caribbean heritage)

Strand Sahara was established in 2018 by Rashida Abdulai. It champions the “African Dream” by empowering entrepreneurs through “stress-free” legal support for start-ups and SMEs in Britain and across Africa. The Pan-African firm operates in the UK, Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana. Strand helps businesses identify legal gaps, create contracts and level up in order to boost growth and benefit Africans across the globe. Abdulai, an award-winning lawyer, believes “The world needs more lawyerpreneurs and there has never been a better time to become one.” She has been recognised for her efforts to promote diversity and investment in Africa and the legal industry. Abdulai co-founded the Black Founders Hub — a non-profit peer network organisation for high growth, Black-owned, service businesses.

Sinal Govender & Claire Keet Co-Founders life.file & pop.law (South Africa)

Sinal Govender and Claire Keet are paving the way for thousands of South Africans and people across the world to start getting their “ducks in a row” as they handle the legal parts of life and death. The concept was born in 2019, following a conversation between Keet and her mother, which led the entrepreneur to design a solution that would be friendly, educational and easy to follow. Soon after, Keet met Govender, an experienced lawyer who lost her mother to cancer in 2017. In 2020, the pair created pop.law to put “free legal death resources into the hands of South Africans” during the pandemic. They started life.file — a “Dropbox for death” — in 2021 to solve a universal but personal problem. The platform helps users to create, store and share a file of all the legal documents needed to deal with estate administration. Govender serves as CEO and head of legal, while Keet is the COO and head of product. Together, they combine over 20 years of experience traversing the intersections of tech, design and law to create innovative legal solutions and products.

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Funkola Odeleye, Bola Olonisakin, Odunoluwa Longe, Co-Founders DIYlaw (Nigeria)

A trio of changemakers —Odeleye, Olonisakin and Longe—founded DIYlaw in 2015, to make the legal process “transparent, simple and affordable.” Odeleye and Odunoluwa, both venture lawyers, and Olonisakin, a project manager and business analyst, leveraged their legal, tech and project management expertise to establish the legal tech start-up. DIYlaw’s ethos is to ensure anyone in Nigeria and all Nigerian entrepreneurs can access legal services regardless of gender, location or financial resources. It also works to make it easier to connect lawyers with clients, both online and offline. The platform helps those who want to start a business with every step of the process including, company, trademark and VAT registration, as well as preparing a website privacy policy and non-disclosure agreements. Odeleye was a 2020 Cartier Women's Initiative Fellow.

Nada Eldib, Founder Maatisaal (Egypt)

In 2018, Nada Eldib founded Maatisaal, an app that seeks to answer legal queries at the tap of a screen. Eldib, an experienced claims handler in the insurance industry, has a master’s degree in Maritime Law, and Business Law: Global Context, respectively. Eldib’s goal was to help women stand up for their rights, so they don’t get trapped in corruption driven injustice. The subscription-based app is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and provides one-to-one legal advice with lawyers and updates on legal information from various sectors. Maatisaal covers fields including, SMEs, family law, employment and corporate. It currently only operates in Egypt but plans to expand into the MENA region and across Africa in the future. Maatisaal comes from a combination of a play on words — “Matisal,” a colloquial term used in Egypt, which translates as “why don’t you ask” and “Maat” — the ancient Egyptian goddess of truth, justice, balance and order.

Nafissatou Tine, Founder & CEO Sunulex (Senegal)

Senegal-based Sunulex was founded by lawyer turned entrepreneur Nafissatou Tine in 2019, to offer the most complete legal database on the continent. Tine, a practising lawyer in Belgium, was seeking to help boost Senegalese legal information and those from other African Francophone countries online. Sunulex hosts a directory of lawyers as well as more than 100,000 documents including legislation, case law and research. Tine says she wants to bring transparency, trust and compliance to the legal sector in order to root out corruption. She hopes the platform will be a leading and reliable source that facilitates access to legal information and serve as a tool that helps to implement economically beneficial agreements such as the African Free Trade deal. Outside of Sunulex, Tine also consults for Belgian businesses with vested interest in Senegal.

Sunulex, The Legal Platform that Wants to Bring Transparency to Africa’s Justice System

Rachel Sibande, Founder & CEO Ufulu Wanga (South Africa/Malawi)

Rachel Sibande founded Ufulu Wanga, a human rights platform dedicated to deconstructing violence against women and wider issues faced in society. It was founded out of mHub, Malawi’s first technology hub, an incubator for innovators and emerging entrepreneurs, also established by Sibande. Ufulu Wanga, which means “my rights” or “my freedoms,” seeks to create a culture where women can talk about justice issues like gender-based violence, child custody and divorce procedures. It tackles the challenge of access to legal resources, information and practitioners, so people can make more informed legal choices. It has also helped uncover cases of early marriage. Users can send an anonymous report on human rights violations through the web to an SMS service. MHub provides investment readiness support and financing. Sibande, who worked as a market systems specialist at USAID, has managed projects in various sectors including big data, business, tech and governance for over 15 years. She was the recipient of the 2018 Forbes Woman Africa Gen Y Award, and was listed on Forbes 30 under 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa in 2016. 

Moe Odele, Founder Vazi Legal (Nigeria)

Africa-focused law firm, Vazi Legal, was founded by Moe Odele in 2019 to represent investors, start-ups, and tech enabled firms at “all stages of development.” The company, which claims to be “Africa’s top innovation-driven law firm” uses a network of qualified lawyers based in Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, London and New York. Odele, a tech and start-up lawyer, also founded Scale My Hustle — a social enterprise that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build “better-structured businesses” via an online community and educational content. The lawyer became a leading force of the End SARS campaign, which pushed for the disbandment of Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Odele's firm was one of many that provided legal aid to peaceful protestors who were illegally arrested during nationwide protests in the West African nation in October 2020. Neema Magimba Co-Founder & Head of Legal Department, Sheria Kiganjani (Tanzania) Sheria Kiganji, co-founded by intellectual property practitioner Neema Magimba in 2019, offers affordable and accessible legal help to more than 40,000 Tanzanians who can’t access justice due to financial and geographical constraints. The online platform utilises mobile phones, enabling users to chat with lawyers at all hours of the day, access templates of legal documents such as affidavits and Q&As that simplify complex provisions of the law. Sheria Kiganji, Swahili for “law on your palm,” connects users with lawyers nearest to their location and provides an e-library for law students and legal professionals. Magimba’s goal is to serve people who cannot readily access legal services. She is also a managing partner at Extend Corporate Advisory law firm.