Unleashing the potential of the African girl child

The full blossom of the African girl child still has miles to go, with many girls still bearing the brunt of a string of heartbreaking complex misfortunes marauding the continent of untapped potential which can otherwise be harnessed to foster growth and development in diverse fields.   Africa is renowned as home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and offers exciting frontiers for businesses looking for growth and new markets. However, gender inequality holds captive this massive potential. According to McKinsey Global Institute, if Africa steps up its efforts now to close gender gaps, it can secure a substantial growth dividend in the process thereby accelerating progress toward parity which could boost African economies by the equivalent of 10% of their collective GDP by 2025.  Due to the failure to embrace gender diversity, millions of girls, women, and Africa’s overall social and economic progress will not reach its full potential.  As the world celebrates the 2021 international day of the girl child this October, it is critical to reflect upon and celebrate gains, whilst highlighting the hurdles stifling the voice of the African girl child and redress this long-standing problem that stems from gender inequality. This is especially prevalent because most cultures in