The Founder Behind the Gate: Why Linda Obi Built a Test for Women’s Businesses

By Linda Obi

After 2,810 applications, she says the barrier is paper, not ambition.

The Founder Behind the Gate: Why Linda Obi Built a Test for Women’s Businesses After 2,810 applications, she says the barrier is paper, not ambition.
Linda Obi

Serial entrepreneuer Linda Obi spent more than twenty years in oil and gas, renewable energy, infrastructure, technology and consumer goods across sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, as chief executive of AfriHealth, Global Head of Strategy at Zenith Chain and Head of Digital Transformation at Tolaram. She built ZCN because the baseline numbers for female capital allocation were unacceptable, and closing the gap required hard commercial infrastructure rather than just advocacy.


Today she leads Zuri Circle Network, a verified community of 1,426 women across three countries. At its centre is a compliance gate that checks three things before a business joins a programme: verified registration, financial documentation and confirmed operations.


“We needed to move beyond exploratory networking and build an ecosystem where a ‘yes’ from a bank is backed by verified operational data,” said Obi, Founder and Executive Director of ZCN.


The gate has been tested at scale. Her first programme drew more than 500 applications and a 65% business formalisation rate among participants. The second drew 2,810. 54.9% cleared it on first submission, and 98 founders were formally selected.


“Women founders have no shortage of drive,” she said. “What they need are the governance, financial modelling and compliance structures that institutional investors require before they deploy capital.”


Her next step is The 2nd Annual Refined Woman Conference on 19 December in Lagos, which brings founders, executives and institutional leaders into one room. Registration enquiries can be sent to operations [at] zuricirclenetwork [dot] com.


About Zuri Circle Network


Zuri Circle Network (ZCN) is a verified community of 1,426 women founders, executives and professionals across three countries. It runs the Fearless Female Founders programme and builds the infrastructure for women-led businesses to scale: community, capital connections and corporate partnerships. It was founded by Linda Obi, a Forbes Business Council member and BusinessDay’s 2023 CEO of the Year.

Contact: operations [at] zuricirclenetwork.com | zuricirclenetwork.com

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