“I declared that I was a happy and satisfied man. Happy with the success of this first initiative, satisfied because the results exceeded all our expectations.
“My great final wish is that women’s football on our continent becomes a tool at the service of economic, social and cultural life,” Ahmad added.
Amongst those in attendance, was Meskerem Tadesse, deputy secretary of the Ethiopian Football Federation and a member of Caf’s Committee for Women’s Football.
She told BBC Sport that the symposium is their “first step to make positive changes in women football.”
“We have been struggling alone for a long period of time, women’s football has been alone, now we have support of Caf, we have support of the men, and we have the support of Africa to take it one more step ahead,” Tadesse said.
“Today women’s football is seen as an appendix, it’s not totally accepted by some of the federations.
“Women’s football is seen as a charity. It’s not considered as part of the federations’ day to day activities.
“Member associations need to accept that women’s football is part of them, and they need to give the same emphasis they are giving to the men to women’s football,” she added.
“The way forward is – with the support of the Caf administration – to put more emphasis on member associations and federations to take women’s football seriously, it’s not something you do for charity.
“Caf needs to support us one hundred per cent, and I think this symposium shows that Caf is taking the necessary steps to do that.”