Rwandan international football referee, Salima Rhadia Mukansanga won the 2023 FORBES Woman Africa Sports Award replacing South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker who won the prize in 2022.
Mukansanga was handed the award, for exceptional work as female referee, at colourful awarding ceremony during FORBES Woman Africa Leading Women Summit held in Pretoria, South Africa on this international women’s day March 8.
The annual summit recognizes female leadership who have made impact on the continent and beyond in business, politics, art, sports, civil society and Community.
The award adds on Mukansanga’s rising star in the field of sports on both the continental and global level after she was selected by FIFA to officiate at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and thus becoming the first African woman to make this historical achievement.
Mukansanga, 34, was also recently listed among the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 100 Africa Influential Women in 2022.