Borderless Trade Network to Empower Female MSMEs

Hameed Ayodeji

As part of efforts to deepen access to funding of female-owned Micro, Small, Medium scale Enterprises (MSMEs), Borderless Trade Network has expressed its preparedness to support ad provide female entrepreneurs the access to funding, as well as technical support needed to upscale their business activities through its WINHER initiative.

The organisation revealed that the WINHER project scheduled to commence on the 8th of August is dedicated towards empowering women to achieve financial wellness through the demystification of wealth creation; whilst creating an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to network, get educated on investment opportunities and principles, discover sources of funding, share experiences and build new partnerships to enhance their entrepreneurial capacities and improve their approach towards wealth generation.

The programme, it added, was also designed to cater directly to female African entrepreneurs within the continent and in diaspora who are seeking to gain the ability to build long term wealth through financial education and access to high interest paying investment opportunities, whilst leveraging on the recently ratified African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

Speaking during the launch of the WINHER initiative in Lagos, Founder Borderless Trade Network, Olori Boye-Ajayi, said due to the AfCFTA MSMEs need such initiatives to enhance the scale at which they carry out their business activities in order to meet the increase in demand of their product and services and also compete at an international scale.

“As an organisation we gathered that women in trade particularly were having difficulties accessing adequate fundings to scale up their business operations which had to do with investment gaps. Out of the 2,500 female entrepreneurs we surveyed we realised that there was not a large number of them that had personal investments. Thus, we discovered that there would be no trade if there were no investments.

She said, “This led us to go to our drawing boards to find ways to combat this challenge in the long run, thereby creating long term solutions that are sustainable and inclusive of female owned businesses. This pilot phase of the WINHER initiative which would be commencing in August is a two year pilot, and our goal is to have impacted 30,000 women within the next three to five years across the continent of Africa.”

On her part, Chief Executive Officer, Twelvevest, Tomie Balogun said, “There is a lot happening in the technology and digital space that women can leverage on in order to upscale their trade.In the past three years, we have worked with multiple individuals in the digital space and we have seen a clear gap for women in terms of barriers in ability to afford a lot of investment opportunities, access to information and financial literacy. We have seen those gaps and that is one of the reasons we are excited to partner with Borderless Trade Network on this WINHER initiative, which is aimed at bridging these gaps.

“As knowledge partners, we will provide financial education that will teach women how to invest and earn in this new economy as there is a lot happening in the technology and digital space that women can tap into for trade. We also have a technology platform where we connect investors to businesses that need funding. Understanding the huge focus on tech companies in Nigeria, we believe there are huge opportunities in other sectors as well and we are looking forward to partnering women in other essential sectors of the nation’s economy.”