Riyadh is set to host more than 3,000 participants and 250 speakers at the Women Shaping Wealth Summit 2026, a two-day gathering focused on capital, investment, entrepreneurship and the growing economic influence of women across the Middle East and globally.

Organised by women’s leadership and career development platform PLAYBOOK, the summit will take place on September 28–29, 2026, bringing investors, founders, executives, policymakers and innovators together in the Saudi capital.

Rather than approaching women’s economic participation primarily through the lens of financial inclusion, the event is designed around a broader question: how women are increasingly creating, owning, investing and influencing capital.

The programme will combine discussions on investment and leadership with direct opportunities for founders to meet investors, including a Live Demo Day, startup showcases, curated networking, mentorship sessions and partnership opportunities.

“Women today are founders, investors, executives, policymakers and decision-makers influencing where capital goes and what it builds,” said Wafa Al Obaidat, Founder of PLAYBOOK. She said the summit aims to convert those conversations into access, relationships and measurable opportunities.

Three Tracks Explore Capital, Wellbeing and Influence

Women Shaping Wealth will organise its programme around three content tracks addressing different dimensions of wealth and economic influence.

Money in Motion will focus on finance, entrepreneurship and capital, while Wealth in Wellbeing will examine the connection between health, longevity, performance and economic value. The third track, Power in Networks, will explore leadership, influence and policy.

The structure reflects an attempt to broaden the traditional discussion around women’s financial participation by looking at how economic influence is created through business ownership, investment decisions, professional networks and leadership positions.

Among the prominent participants will be HRH Ambassador Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States, who is scheduled to deliver virtual opening remarks.

She will be joined by regional and international figures from investment, government, business, entrepreneurship and innovation during the two-day programme.

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Female Founders to Pitch Investors at Live Demo Day

Beyond its main-stage programme, the summit will create several formats intended to produce direct business and investment connections.

A dedicated Live Demo Day will connect female founders with investors, while startup and founder showcases will give entrepreneurs additional opportunities to present their businesses.

The summit will also feature curated speed networking, mentorship and peer sessions designed to connect participants according to their professional and investment interests.

For founders, those formats could make the event more commercially relevant than a conventional leadership conference. Access to investors, mentors and potential partners can be particularly important for entrepreneurs seeking capital or market connections across the GCC.

“We don’t want people to leave Riyadh simply feeling inspired,” Al Obaidat said. “We want them to leave with a new investor connection, a business opportunity, a mentor, a partnership, a commitment or a clearer path towards building and deploying wealth.”

Summit Seeks Measurable Commitments Beyond the Event

PLAYBOOK is also introducing a Pledges for Progress platform through which participating leaders and organisations can make measurable commitments that will be followed up after the summit.

The event will provide space for strategic partnerships and memorandum of understanding (MOU) signings, with the aim of translating discussions into documented initiatives and longer-term collaborations.

That focus on measurable outcomes comes as women’s economic participation across the GCC increasingly extends beyond employment into entrepreneurship, investment, corporate boards and policymaking.

For PLAYBOOK, the summit builds on its existing work across the region through financial education, leadership programmes, networking and investment-focused experiences.

The platform provides women with access to knowledge, mentorship, professional networks and opportunities through its digital community, programmes, events and partnerships.

Riyadh Becomes Meeting Point for Women, Capital and Entrepreneurship

Choosing Riyadh places the summit within one of the region’s rapidly developing investment and entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation has created a growing concentration of investors, companies, founders and technology businesses in the capital, while women’s participation across the Kingdom’s business landscape has also become an increasingly visible part of that transformation.

Women Shaping Wealth aims to use that environment to connect participants from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider GCC with an international community of investors, executives and entrepreneurs.

The event’s emphasis on capital also reflects a changing conversation around women’s economic influence. Participation in the workforce remains important, but the summit is looking further along the economic value chain toward who starts companies, allocates investment, joins boards, shapes policy and builds influential professional networks.

For PLAYBOOK, success will therefore be measured not only by the more than 3,000 people expected to attend, but by the investment relationships, partnerships and commitments that emerge after they leave Riyadh.

Qatar’s Social Development Center (Nama) has launched the third edition of its Social Entrepreneurship Award, offering a combined QAR 360,000 ($98,900) in prizes to entrepreneurs, young people and students developing sustainable solutions to social challenges.

Operating under the Qatar Foundation for Social Work, Nama has structured the initiative around two main categories: Best Social Entrepreneurship Idea and Best Existing Social Enterprise Project. A separate Social Entrepreneurship Competition will target secondary school students.

The Best Social Entrepreneurship Idea winner will receive QAR 100,000, while the Best Existing Social Enterprise Project carries a QAR 200,000 prize. Another QAR 60,000 will be distributed among winners of the boys’ and girls’ categories in the secondary school competition.

Beyond the financial awards, the third edition introduces an intensive training program for shortlisted participants, designed to help founders better understand community problems, refine their solutions and build projects capable of delivering measurable and sustainable impact.

Nama Adds Training to Turn Social Ideas Into Viable Ventures

The award is designed to encourage entrepreneurship focused on solving social problems rather than building businesses around commercial opportunity alone.

Ghanem Salah Al Ali, Executive Director of Nama, said the initiative is one of the center’s tools for enabling individuals and entrepreneurs to develop practical solutions grounded in actual community needs.

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The new training component will take shortlisted applicants through a more structured venture-development process. Participants will work on understanding the social challenges they are targeting before developing solutions that can be implemented sustainably and whose impact can be measured.

That approach is particularly relevant to social entrepreneurship, where a promising social mission does not necessarily translate into a sustainable organisation. Ventures still need workable operating models, clear beneficiaries and the ability to demonstrate that their interventions produce meaningful results.

Entries will consequently be evaluated on several dimensions, including the clarity of the social challenge, relevance of the proposed solution, expected impact, feasibility, sustainability, scalability and measurable results.

QAR 300,000 Targets Ideas and Existing Social Enterprises

Nama has separated entrepreneurs into categories reflecting different stages of development.

The QAR 100,000 Best Social Entrepreneurship Idea category gives founders at an earlier stage an opportunity to develop concepts before they become established organisations. The QAR 200,000 Best Existing Social Enterprise Project category targets ventures that have already moved into implementation.

The structure allows the award to support both experimentation and existing projects seeking to expand their impact.

Nama said it has also worked with partners to identify and study a number of community challenges. Those findings will provide entrepreneurs with potential areas where practical solutions are needed, connecting venture development more directly with issues affecting communities in Qatar.

The center launched the first edition of the award in 2024. The Families of People with Autism Platform won the Best Existing Project category, while the Central Canteen Project took the Best Project Idea award.

Nama said experience from the first two editions demonstrated the potential for entrepreneurial ideas to generate tangible social value, contributing to the decision to continue developing the initiative.

Secondary Schools Bring Social Entrepreneurship to Younger Founders

Nama is also extending the concept of entrepreneurship beyond established and aspiring founders through its secondary school competition.

The school category was introduced during the award’s second edition and attracted 31 schools. It returns this year with QAR 60,000 in total prizes divided between winning boys’ and girls’ categories.

Rather than focusing exclusively on launching conventional businesses, the competition is intended to introduce students to identifying social problems and designing sustainable solutions around them.

That can expose students to entrepreneurial thinking at an earlier stage, particularly the process of defining a problem, testing whether a proposed intervention addresses it and considering how an initiative could remain viable over time.

The combination of the school competition and the two main entrepreneur categories gives Nama a wider pipeline ranging from students encountering social entrepreneurship for the first time to founders already operating social enterprises.

Qatar Expands Support for Impact-Driven Entrepreneurship

The third edition arrives as Qatar continues developing an entrepreneurship ecosystem that extends beyond conventional technology startups and investment-driven ventures.

Social enterprises occupy a different part of that ecosystem, combining entrepreneurial methods with objectives such as improving community services or addressing specific societal challenges. Measuring success can therefore involve both financial sustainability and demonstrable social outcomes.

Nama’s decision to combine cash prizes, training and problem identification is intended to address both sides of that equation.

For existing projects, QAR 200,000 could provide additional resources to improve or scale an established model. For earlier-stage entrepreneurs, the QAR 100,000 category and accompanying training offer a route from identifying a social problem toward building a more structured venture around it.

Applications for the third edition can be submitted through Nama’s official channels.

With QAR 360,000 in total prizes and a stronger emphasis on training, sustainability and measurable results, the latest edition is positioning social entrepreneurship as another pathway for founders and young people seeking to build ventures around challenges facing Qatar’s communities.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has opened applications for the second edition of the ECOWAS Startup Awards, offering startups across West Africa the opportunity to compete for a total of $65,000 in cash prizes.

Organized by the Directorate of Private Sector and Industry of the ECOWAS Commission, the regional competition aims to identify and support startups contributing to innovation, digital transformation, regional integration and sustainable economic development.

A total of 60 startups will be selected from across ECOWAS member states, with applications closing on August 31, 2026, at 11:59 PM GMT+1.

Selected companies will participate in virtual masterclasses before traveling to Abuja, Nigeria, for an in-person program and regional finals in September.

$65,000 for the Top Three Startups

The three highest-ranked startups will share the competition’s $65,000 prize pool.

The overall winner will receive $30,000, while the first runner-up will receive $20,000 and the second runner-up will take home $15,000.

Beyond the cash awards, selected startups will gain access to mentorship, investor engagement and regional business opportunities.

Participants may also receive digital tools including computers, accessories and software.

Following the awards, startups will have access to a six-month acceleration and mentorship program focused on business growth and investment readiness.

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Six Startup Sectors Are Eligible

The 2026 edition targets startups operating across six priority sectors:

• EdTech and Skills Development
• FinTech
• HealthTech
• AgriTech and Food Systems
• CleanTech, Climate and Green Innovation
• Tourism, Hospitality and TravelTech

Female-led companies are particularly encouraged to apply as part of the program’s efforts to broaden entrepreneurial participation across the region.

Eligible startups must have been operating for at least two years and have a working product or service.

Companies must also demonstrate market traction or clear potential to scale.

Applicants are required to be citizens of an ECOWAS member state, while their startups must be registered and based within the ECOWAS region.

Startups From Across West Africa Can Apply

The competition is open to eligible companies from ECOWAS member countries across West Africa, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The program is designed not only to identify individual winners but also to connect promising businesses with investors, policymakers, development organizations and other entrepreneurs across the regional ecosystem.

Investor deal rooms and other engagement activities will provide participants with opportunities to explore potential financing and partnerships.

How the 60 Startups Will Be Selected

Applications will be assessed through a weighted evaluation framework examining the quality of the business, its innovation, team, market opportunity and potential impact.

Problem clarity and solution fit will account for 20% of the evaluation, while innovation and originality will represent another 20%.

Team capacity and execution ability will contribute 15%, followed by market potential and scalability at 10%, business model and financial viability at 10%, social and economic impact at 10%, and alignment with ECOWAS priorities at 10%.

Pitch performance, online voting and data integrity will account for the remaining 5%.

Applicants will be expected to explain the problem their startup addresses, demonstrate how their solution differs from existing alternatives and provide evidence that the team can execute its strategy.

They must also demonstrate commercial viability, scalability and potential social or economic impact.

From Virtual Masterclasses to the Abuja Finals

The 60 selected startups will begin with virtual masterclasses from September 21 to 25, 2026.

The competition will then move to Abuja for a physical program running from September 28 to 30.

The Regional Finals will take place on September 30, when finalists will pitch before an independent jury comprising investors, industry experts and policy stakeholders.

The three eventual winners will then divide the $65,000 cash prize pool.

Building a Regional Pipeline of West African Startups

The second ECOWAS Startup Awards is convened by the Directorate of Private Sector and Industry of the ECOWAS Commission and jointly implemented by the Pan African Alliance for Small and Medium Industries (PAOSMI) and the Investment Promotion Agencies of West African States (IPAWAS).

The initiative follows the inaugural ECOWAS Startup Awards, held in Niamey, Niger, in November 2021.

This year’s edition expands the model around a broader support structure combining competition funding with acceleration, mentorship, investor access and cross-border visibility.

For participating founders, the program could also provide an entry point into markets beyond their home countries, particularly as ECOWAS seeks to strengthen economic integration and private-sector development across West Africa.

Applications opened on August 3 and will remain available until August 31, 2026, at 23:59 GMT+1.

Eligible founders can apply through the official ECOWAS Startup Awards application portal.

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