From Mentor to Market: How networks become women’s capital

I remember my very first article on unlocking women’s potential, published on the World Economic Forum. The highlight was my induction into the WISCAR Mentoring Programme,
because I believed structured career mentorship was one of the most tangible ways to unlock women’s potential.

One of the most memorable moments of that induction was the fireside chat with  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala — an eye-opener to how transformative this programme could be if it truly bridged experience with access and opportunity. And I wasn’t wrong.

Through WISCAR, I was paired with a non-profit intrapreneur. She graciously hand-held me through that season and helped lay a roadmap that strongly aligned with my career aspirations.

I still remember when she helped me search for a course titled Finance for Non-Finance Managers. She helped me see not just who I was more clearly but who I could become, serving
both as a reference point and a co-creator of vision.

That experience left an imprint. It taught me that mentorship is not just guidance; it’s a form of capital transfer — a bridge to knowledge, networks, and visibility. So when the opportunity came, I held the door open for someone else, who wrote back to me after her own induction:

“Thank you, Ekemini. I have never been in a room with such powerful women.”

And in a beautiful twist of fate, I now serve as Executive Secretary at WISCAR, the very institution that once shaped my own intrapreneurial journey. It’s not just a full-circle moment; it’s living proof that intentional mentorship model works.

The Power of Belonging — and Why It Matters for Women

This is not to say that women have never been surrounded by networks; we have always built communities of support. But now, we must network with purpose, intentionally positioning ourselves for professional and economic advancement.

A few weeks ago, I told you the story of Purl, who struggled to fit into a workplace steeped in
“bro culture” until she began mirroring her male colleagues’ behaviour. This phenomenon, known as social mirroring, helps explain why many women remain excluded from the informal
power networks that drive advancement.
The “boys’ club” effect is not always intentional, but it is structural — access breeds access.

Men naturally network with men, exchange referrals, share board seats, and invest in one another’s ventures. The result is that women like Purl often find themselves working hard within
systems that were never designed to elevate them.

Now, thanks to the women who continue to challenge these patterns, the world has made more room for women in leadership spaces. But presence alone is not enough. It is our turn to structure mentorship as a system of access, transforming belonging into leverage, and relationships into results.

Turning Relationships into Results

Mentorship, when properly designed, becomes a launchpad for visibility and growth. When a mentor shares beyond advice, offering access to networks, opportunities, and influence, she
becomes a broker of a whole universe another woman can thrive within. In doing so, she transforms her experience into capital for another woman.
Across industries, we’ve seen what happens when mentorship systems are structured rather than spontaneous.

Career mentorship evolves into sponsorship and board placements, peer
mentorship grows into partnerships, consultancies, or co-founded ventures, and alumni networks create pathways to capital, grants, and high-value collaborations. These outcomes
don’t happen by chance; they happen by design. The WISCAR framework has shown me how to turn goodwill into measurable growth — designing access with intent, not accident.

Designing Mentorship as an Ecosystem

The next frontier for women’s advancement is not more networks. Too many associations, programmes, and professional circles remain casual, ending at inspiration instead of translating into opportunity. Better-designed mentorship ecosystems should serve as enablers that track
outcomes, reward reciprocity, and institutionalize access. Imagine a mentorship pipeline that doesn’t just connect women but mobilizes them. That’s how we evolve from “having mentors” to building markets of opportunity.

1. Start from the Workplace

Change begins where women work. When mentorship systems are formalized with clear accountability, they move beyond tokenism. Embedding mentorship ecosystems into workplaces
where senior leaders are accountable for the career mobility of emerging talent transforms mentorship from charity or DEI optics into strategy. Such systems make it possible to track measurable outcomes like promotions, leadership placements, and business growth. They turn mentorship into structured, strategic, and scalable growth.

2. Stay Strategic, Yet Safe

Powerful mentorship is not a replication of the “boys’ club” model. It should not thrive on competition or exclusion. The best ecosystems promote psychological safety, mutual respect, and collaboration rather than abrasiveness or transactional exchange. One of the greatest lessons WISCAR has taught me is the art of relationship-building: get along with everyone, recognize value, and nurture partnerships with grace. Mentorship should uplift without exploiting, challenge without diminishing, and connect without coercion. Advancement must never come at the cost of humanity.

3. Monetise Value, Without Commercializing Relationships

To monetize relationships is not to sell them; it is to recognize and activate value. When women’s networks evolve from spaces of encouragement to spaces of exchange, they unlock
collective power. Across Africa, we’re witnessing the rise of women-led investment collectives,founder networks, and professional alliances that pool influence to create market opportunities.
These models convert social capital into financial capital through shared deal flow, co-founded ventures, board nominations, and funding pipelines. When relationships yield measurable
outcomes, women’s ecosystems stop existing at the margins and start competing at the centre
of power.

The Multiplier Effect of Reciprocity

Here is some news for you: every woman who is mentored has the potential to mentor another. This is how capital — intellectual, social, and even financial — multiplies across generations. My
own journey from being mentored to mentoring and to leading and being genuinely invested in the mission of a mentorship institution is proof that the cycle works.

Women are not waiting for access; we are building it. When women see themselves not only as beneficiaries but as bridges for others, mentorship becomes more than personal growth. It
becomes economic infrastructure.
In a world where women are still catching up on centuries of exclusion from capital, mentorship remains the most reliable equaliser. Because when women mentor women with intention, every introduction becomes an investment, and every relationship yields a return. The true test of mentorship is not how many women we guide, but how many markets we open.