Nwokafor: Inspired to Support Women Entrepreneurship

Zacheaus Somorin

Business survival in many parts of the country is becoming harder with needed support in the face of dwindling economy. Hence creating a community support system has become urgent and important. This is what motivated Mrs. Augusta Nwokafor, the Principal Consultant; Ashrob Consultancy Services International to convene a business discourse meeting aimed at motivating women entrepreneurs.

‘The face of the so called market woman is changing. The concept of a market woman is changing; I am a market woman, I own a shop; most of these women you see here own shops; so what do you mean by a market woman…you mean an illiterate woman?’’ said Augusta Nwakafor, during the gathering of women entrepreneurs recently in Lagos.

As the convener of the network, she opined that every woman needs help – including the elite class who many think are self-sufficient. For many entrepreneurs, recruiting quality workers has been a consistent problem that has to be solved. Aside that, retaining the right people has also constituted a major encumbrance to entrepreneurship. Hence: business owners must understand what makes them angry and have the capacity to understand other people.

Mrs. Osayi Lasisi, a human resources expert, with a specialisation on talent management, said one of the challenges organisations have in business today is creating the kind of environment that encourages people to give their best.

‘’Education is not just about going to school. It is also helping someone to learn a new means of doing things. As long as organisations know that there are challenges about our educational system, then the question is: what system are you going to put in place in your organisation to compensate for that?

“If your employees are not feeling motivated enough or happy enough, or empowered enough to make your customers feel good, then you won’t have those customers. So you need to invest in those employees so that they can be powerful enough to attract the kind of customer you want.’’

Keeping one’s individual and organisation’s dream alive is one of the major dints to sustainable goals achievement. While inspiring members of the network, the CEO and Publisher of Exquisite Magazine, Mrs. Tewa Onasanya, said women must believe in themselves first – ‘’as nobody can believe in you than yourself,’’ saying fear and faith require the same energy to achieve, hence the mental state of a business person must be positioned in faith.

She posited that despite the structural challenges in the Nigerian business environment, business goals can still be achieved through perseverance, doggedness, faith and hope. ‘’You are who you are. Nobody is like you in the universe. Because there is no one like you, you must move on despite difficulties. Failure is not necessarily bad thing, but a learning process’, she added.