Many Nigerian women are entrepreneurs

Having related with women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Africa through your  organisation, what do you see as their major challenge?   Building a business in Africa is challenging regardless of who you are, but for young women their age and gender present a unique set of challenges when it comes to starting a business. While there […]

Having related with women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Africa through your  organisation, what do you see as their major challenge? 

 Building a business in Africa is challenging regardless of who you are, but for young women their age and gender present a unique set of challenges when it comes to starting a business. While there are many challenges, some depending on where you live, we’ve identified three main ones that we consistently hear from across our communities that pose as roadblocks on entrepreneurial journey. 

 One, cultural stereotypes and the media have narrowed down who we see and believe can be a successful entrepreneur.  Secondly, at She Leads Africa, we have invested significantly in telling a different story about what it means to be a young African woman entrepreneur. Whenever an organisation or investor says they can’t find women for panels or events, we can direct them to the nearly 1,000 young women we’ve profiled on our website in agriculture, technology, health, fashion, food and so much more. There is incredible talent amongst young African women and we strive to provide inspiration and opportunities for them. 

Again, running a business is a lonely endeavour and with many business networks dominated by men, young women don’t always feel that they have a place there. This is especially true in the tech industry where “bro” culture has even permeated Africa and tech hubs aren’t inclusive spaces. 

 She Leads Africa provides a community for young women who are looking to connect with likeminded young women and gain support to achieve their dreams. We do this through our online community and active social media pages. There our community can get inspiration, motivation and business advice. Through our professional bootcamps which we’ve held in six different countries, our participants are able to connect and learn with more than 150 other smart and ambitious young women. This is the type of new girls’ network that young African women need in order to succeed.   

 Also, access to finance is very challenging for young women entrepreneurs as very few banks are able to support SMEs and access to investors is very difficult if you don’t have the right networks. 

 We don’t believe that access to finance should prohibit any one from achieving their dreams so we teach young women how to build sustainable businesses without external funding and for those looking for investors, we connect them to investors that want to support diverse entrepreneurs. Our website has free guides on business planning, building your online community and developing a strong foundation for your business. 

How is SLA helping the young woman entrepreneurs to overcome the challenge? 

Young African women are forceful in business so despite the challenges in front of them, they will certainly find a way to power through. 

We have a number of products and services to support female professionals and entrepreneurs. Our services are varied and suit every price point. 

Our website, SheLeadsAfrica.org, offers a number of informational and inspirational articles and downloadable guides for young women who want to develop their business or career skills. 

Our digital training, each week, we host online training sessions to provide access to experts regardless of wherever you are in the world. These digital training sessions are free and cover topics such as ‘Negotiating For What You’re Worth’, ‘Getting Into The Graduate School of Your Dreams’ and ‘Setting Up A Grown Up Budget’. 

Our signature event, the SheHive, is a networking and learning platform for women looking to break through, live their purpose and get real results in their businesses and careers. Our trainings are in the format of bootcamps instead of conferences because we’re focused on rapid results and want all of our attendees to leave with a real plan of action to help them reach that next level in their career or business. 

While we always have experts with significant expertise in their fields, we also make sure that the women who attend have the opportunity to connect and develop relationships with their peers so they can leverage those relationships in the future. 

How have you been able to build capacity for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and across Africa since you began? 

  We started She Leads Africa (SLA) in 2014 with our first pitch competition. In just six weeks, we received 400 applications and had to put together the event in two to three months. We were able to provide our participants with a space where they shared personal experiences. Besides, they gained direct access to senior executives, mentors and exclusive features in highly recognised journals such as Forbes, CNBC, the Washington Post and Ventures Africa. That was definitely a highlight! 

Fast forward to 2017, and we have hosted our landmark professional bootcamp SheHive in nine cities across the continent and the diaspora and have reached more than 300,000 women with our digital content and trainings.   

Do you have an estimate of the number of women entrepreneurs in Africa and Nigeria? 

According to the BBC, 40% of Nigerian women are entrepreneurs and that is the highest rate across Africa. Despite Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest rate of female entrepreneurship across the world, however when people think about young women entrepreneurs they focus on small scale and subsistence entrepreneurs. 

While there are definitely women in need of training and skills development, why is it typically focused on beads and soap making? 

 Of the total number, how many have you reached through your programmes? 

Through our online community we have provided more than 300,000 women with access to experts, research and advice on their businesses and careers. With our trainings, we have provided direct coaching and mentoring to more than 2,000 women and counting. 

What inspired you to start She Leads Africa? 

She Leads Africa was born out of two things: frustration and desire. My cofounder, Yasmin Bello-Osagie and I were fed up with the lack of attention given to female entrepreneurs in the global discourse surrounding African women and the opportunities that business provides. Together, we decided to address this and created She Leads Africa, a platform for young African women who are looking to connect with like-minded young women and gain support to achieve their dreams. 

 What is your vision and where do you see your organisation in the next two years? 

Our vision is to turn She Leads Africa into the #1 digital destination for smart and ambitious young African women. Whenever a young woman is looking to start a new business, launch her career, grow her business or improve her skills we want her to think first of She Leads Africa as the best place for her to do that. 

Where do you see women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Africa in the next two years? 

Entrepreneurship is going to be the broad-based driver of economic growth in Africa. She Leads Africa aims to empower the women who have the ambition to be the business leaders of tomorrow; women at the forefront of this revolution creating organisations that will hire millions of young Africans and promote development across the continent. In the next two years, we see women taking bolder steps and rising up to this challenge.