Fostering Inclusion via Entrepreneurship Training

At the 2024 International Women’s Day Celebration organised by ImpactHER in collaboration with the African Union, experts agreed that there is a need for a more concentrated effort on dissemination of accurate information, more access to finance, enabling women to create a pool of like businesses, breaking down of various cultural and societal barriers and a more structured and enabling support from government at all levels, writes Gibert Ekwugbe

According to the 2021 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) Survey Report, of the 38.4 million nano and micro-businesses in Nigeria, women account for 32.9% of business ownership. Another study conducted by Small Firm Diaries and published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2003 shows that there has been an increase in the number of SME businesses owned by women. The study showed that 40% of MSMEs in Nigeria are now owned by women. This report contrasts a World Bank report that stated that firms owned by Nigerian women was pegged at 16.8%. Another PWC report alludes to the fact that women are taking charge and expanding the business frontier when it stated that Nigerian women account for 41% ownership of micro businesses in the country. The prevalent question that abounds- why has the Nigerian economy not really felt the impact of this rising role women are playing in SME and business ownership? This formed the crux of discussion at the 2024 International Women’s Day Celebration organized by ImpactHER, a foremost non-profit organization with a mandate of empowering African female entrepreneurs by bridging the gender business financing gap so as to help them realise their full economic potentials. This event was held in collaboration with the African Union, ToolUp, BRAVE Women, GIZ, Lotus Bank and Rites Food. The theme of this year’s discussion and training was: Inspiring Inclusion: Unlocking Opportunities Using Digital Skills and Market Expansion.

The experts who served as facilitators at the training event that had over 400 women in attendance all agreed that there is a need for a more concentrated effort on dissemination of accurate information, more access to finance, enabling women to create a pool of like businesses, breaking down of various cultural and societal barriers and a more structured and enabling support from government at all levels.

According to Founder of ImpactHER, Efe Ukala, there is a need for women to forge a strong bond of unity, pull resources together and serve as a torch bearer in their various business enterprises. She explained that ImpactHER is an inclusion platform that seeks to help female entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves. “ImpactHER has trained close to 150,000 female entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries and has provided a platform where over $800m has been invested in various female-led businesses across the continent too. The reality of ImpactHER came to be in response to a report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which noted that a $300 billion gap in financing exists for formal, women-owned small businesses and more than 70 percent of women-owned small and medium enterprises have inadequate or no access to financial services. Our platform has been a springboard that has shot many women to greatness. In brokering deals for various clients across Africa, I found out that only men get the largest chunk of the business finance deals. This prompted me to begin ImpactHER so that we can provide an inclusion platform for women to be able to access financing and take their business to another level,” she noted.

She explained that Inspiring inclusion is more than just a theme for International Women’s Day. It is a guiding light for us all, especially the vibrant community of African women entrepreneurs. It means creating spaces where every woman’s voice can echo with strength, where her ideas can flourish without boundaries and where her dreams are nurtured by the collective support of a community that sees no limit to what she can achieve. It means each of us committing to lift as we climb ensuring that our success is not a solitary journey but a shared voyage that paves the way for more women to step into their power.                                                                                  

“For this training, we had a slot for 250 women, but today, we have over 400 women in attendance. These women came from all parts of Lagos, Ibadan, Ogun State and even Benin Republic to learn. This shows that women across Nigeria and even Africa, truly need platforms like this where they can learn, network and receive guidance for sustainable business progression. Generally, ImpactHER helps even the most marginalized women to get free resources that allows them to build a more structured and sustainable business. For example, we provide free business registration service, book keeping and accounting so that they can access the finance needed to build their businesses. All these, we believe will help foster inclusion to help bridge the gender gap. During the event, we organized a market place with over forty vendors to showcase and sell their items. To practically show how inclusive of a platform we run, we sourced materials from the women in our network such as cassava flour, tiger nuts and other items and packed them into a gift bags for all participants at the training. Some of the women even volunteered their products as gifts to participants too. With this gesture, we are expanding the network of the women and providing a platform that truly cares for them too,” she expressed.  

The first training of the day was from Chidinma Ndukwe, a TikTok Content Creator who spoke on the topic, “Leveraging Tiktok to Increase Business Visibility and Sales.” She explained that the Tiktok platform has an algorithm that is highly effective in showcasing content to users based on their interests, making it an excellent platform for businesses to reach their target audience. Tiktok’s benefits include- increased band visibility, authentic engagement and opportunity for creativity. “The various strategies that can be adopted by any business owners to achieve success on the platform include- identify your target audience, create engaging content, utilize trending challenges, sounds and hashtags, collaborations, community management, utilize storytelling and create a sales funnel.  Best practices for Tiktok marketing includes- consistency, staying authentic, experimenting with different content formats, engage with the audience, and most of all familiarity with the content creation tools such as Capcut, Inshot, Lightroom and Canva,” she explained

While delivering her training on the topic- Inspire Inclusion- Unlocking Opportunities in Exports and Empowering African Women to Conquer the Global Market, Chief Trade Promotion Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC). Florence Okafor urged the women to invest in quality packaging, acquisition of international licences, have an excellent knowledge of the laws guiding imports in various countries and international trade terms. Okafor exposed the women to the world of exporting with various topics such as – supply chain, logistics information, marketing, sales planning, pricing, export knowledge, planning and strategy, finance, communication, management, human resource management, HSE and compliance issues.

She noted that for any women to succeed in exporting their products, they must first have a thorough knowledge of it. “Women constitute a small percent of those exporting abroad and earning forex for the country. I urge you to contact the NEPC for more information on how to export stress free. You can export items such as ewedu, ugwu, garri and others. The problem many women have is that they have not established themselves properly and they want to start exporting. First be solid on ground, refine and define your production process, connect with women in like business so that when you get an overwhelming order, you can be able to deliver. Have a knowledge of payment terms and PO. Communicate in language you understand and make sure you read the all the terms well to understand. Where in doubt ask a lawyer or an expert to translate for you,” she said.

Another facilitator, Founder/CEO, W-Holistic Business Solutions, Olanrewaju Oniyitan who spoke on the topic, “Growing Wealth: Growing an Investable Company as a Woman Founder,” hinted that people, a wonderful business model, track record of business growth, financial viability, scalability and risk management are some of the pointers needed for female entrepreneurs to become successful in their business. Oniyitan expressed further that some of the challenges besetting women founders/entrepreneurs include- access to finance, customer acquisition and retention, effective marketing, accessing new markets, branding, regulatory compliance, scaling operations, technology and innovation.

She said: “I urge you women to have a rich portfolio of your work and be deliberate about ensuring that you seek the right information always. Regulatory compliance is also very important in accessing finance. You need to be conversant with the tax laws, PAYEE and many more. On a final note, I want you all to know that innovation doesn’t mean you have to go digital or online. Innovation means, you can look at your process, refine it, add something to your product to make it unique and different and you have already innovated. You do not need an app to innovate. Continuous research and development can set your business on the path of innovation.”

To further strengthen the Ndukwe’s earlier position on Tiktok marketing, another facilitator, Olatunde Shobajo of Valor Reviews, a verified Youtube creator with over 200,000 followers also spoke on how the women can master and monetize Youtube as a small business owner. He hinted that Youtube provides the global reach, search engine visibility, branding building and monetization opportunities. “I am here to motivate and urge the women, they shouldn’t hoard their knowledge. It can serve as a springboard that can grow their business. Let them share tips about their business on Youtube because once you share authentic knowledge on Youtube, your brand will grow and will impact your business and you can even decide to monetize this at the long run,” he added.

For the panelists, comprising of, Founder, Aruwa Capital Management, Adesuwa Okubo Rhodes; MD/CEO, Emerging Africa Asset Management Limited, Adaku Ijara; Director of Finance, Entrepreneurship, Mastercard Foundation, Oluwatoyin Aralepo; Project Manager, BRAVE Women Nigeria, Onyeche Elisabeth Agbiti-Douglas; Chief Financial Officer, Digital Reality, Dr. Oluseyi Olanrewaju, and Founder, Corporately Lucid, Ayishat Olanrewaju, they all noted that there is enough grant and financial support for various women in Nigeria but the only challenge is that most of them do not have the right information to access these capital and many more women cannot match the requirements too. They noted that while asking for collateral from female business owners, many do not even have such assets and this constitutes a cultural barrier to women in the country. Debating on the topic: Unlocking opportunities using digital skills and market expansion, they noted encouraged the women to never in competition with anybody. “Know yourself. Don’t try to be like a man. Always have an aspiration for excellence. Make sure you know your onions. You represent all the other women that are trying to enter and play in your chosen business endeavor,” they told the women.

In a special message from the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, who was represented by Brittany Orange, to the women, she lamented the low representation of women in the country’s political and economic space and urged the government to provide a level playing field for more women to be active in politics and business.

ImpactHER is an award-winning not-for-profit organization awarded at the African Union as the Best Women SME (small and medium sized enterprises) Support Organization in Africa; we empower African female entrepreneurs by bridging the gender business financing gap so as to help them realize their full economic potential.

The NGO’s ultimate goal is to utilize its institutional investing experience to prepare best-in-class African female market leaders. This is done by training African female entrepreneurs on how to build scalable businesses and access institutional investors. ImpactHER believes that empowering African female entrepreneurs is critical to building the African economy and spurring economic growth.

ImpactHER is committed to empowering African women entrepreneurs by providing them with the necessary digital training and resources to grow their small and medium-sized businesses.  With a focus on bridging the gender gap in entrepreneurship, they have successfully trained over 150,000 female entrepreneurs across 54 African countries, helping to improve their businesses and livelihoods. As a result, these women have been able to create jobs, increase their income, and contribute to the economic growth and development of their respective communities.