Halima Taw

A 19th-century Hausa entrepreneur who built West Africa's first cotton manufacturing empire and challenged British colonial economic policies.

Halima Taw (1835-1902) was a Nigerian business magnate who revolutionized West Africa's textile industry through her innovative cotton processing techniques. Originating from Kano's Fulani community, she mastered weaving skills from her mother and expanded into trading, establishing supply routes across the Sahara. By 1865, she operated a network of 300+ looms producing Kano cloth, becoming the first African woman to export textiles directly to Europe.

Her patented spinning technique increased production efficiency by 40%, enabling her to undercut British colonial imports. She established a cooperative system where 500+ artisans received equitable shares of profits, a model later adopted by Ghana's post-colonial cooperatives. Taw also financed female apprentices through a trust fund still operational in modern Kano.

Her 1889 lawsuit against the British Niger Company over trade tariffs made legal history, establishing precedents for indigenous rights to economic sovereignty. The Halima Taw Heritage Center in Kano now preserves her account books showing meticulous records of trans-Saharan trade. Contemporary economists credit her with laying foundations for Nigeria's later textile boom, with her business practices influencing modern CSR initiatives in African manufacturing.