Meet Amina Gerba, Cameroonian Business Legend
Amina Gerba is a Cameroonian-Canadian business woman and entrepreneur, she is the founder and CEO of Afrique Expansion, Afrique Expansion Forum and Afrique Expansion Magazine. She also founded the beauty care brands Kariliss and Kariderm – the latter being the world’s first shea butter product to earn organic certification.
She founded Afrique Expansion in 1995, a consulting firm designed to help create business partnerships between North American and African countries and she created a magazine to that effect in 1998.
In 2017, she set up an international business forum under the Afrique Expansion brand in Yaounde, Cameroon, regarding the strengthening of the digital economy in the country and numerous delegates came to the event including Jacques Bonjawo, Ernest Simo and Arthur Zang alongside executives from major telecommunication companies in Cameroon such as MTN Group, Orange and Camtel.
Amina Gerba was born in Cameroon; she is the eighteenth child in a nineteen-child family and happens to be the only girl-child in her family to attend school. She moved to Quebec in 1986. In 1992, she earned her BBA in tourism management (marketing), and in 1993, her MBA in marketing research at the University of Quebec at Montreal’s School of Management Sciences.
She was president of the Rotary Club of Old Montreal between 2014 and 2015. In 2013, she was selected for the United States International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Starting on March 2015, for the period of 12 weeks, she set up the first Technovation Challenge in Montreal to promote STEM studies among girls.
She is a director for the Canadian Council in Africa, African Business Roundtable and Fonds Afro-Entrepreneurs. She is also the president of the board of directors for Entreprendre Ici, a new governmental agency.
Her companies employ the 2,000 women of the Songtaaba Cooperative in Burkina Faso, who receive a portion of all sales and funding from a microfinance program created by Gerba.
Amina is a recipient of various awards from various organizations in recognition of her impact. In 2014, Amina was a recipient of the National Order of Quebec, she was named a Knight of the Order of Quebec for her role in promoting business partnerships between North America and African businesses and encouraging diversity in entrepreneurship.
At the Gala de Reseau des Entrepreneurs et Professionnels Africains (Gala de REPAF), Amina was named Entrepreneur of the Year. She was also named Personnalite Monde des Affaires de l’annee (Business World Personality of the Year) at the 2018 Gala Dynastie awards show.
