The Nigerian business woman has been advised to build her capacity, network and collaborate to enable her business thrive in a competitive male dominated sphere.
This was part of the call as women in different professions converged on Abuja under the auspices of the UN Women Nigeria, to discuss the theme of the International Women’s Day: “Gender Equality Today for A Sustainable Tomorrow”.
The Women X forum had businesswomen in different fields talk about sustainable business plans for women while also discussing how imperative it is to have women in more elective positions.
Ms Hansatu Adegbite, the Executive Director of a Non-Governmental Organisation(NGO), Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) said for women to make their businesses more profitable and sustainable, ‘in a male dominated industry’ women required to be more resilient and seek more knowledge in their chosen fields.
“A woman must build her capacity and competence because for you to excel, it must be about what you know and how well you know it”, she said. She added that “women must #BreakTheBias by also making their voices heard at all times, so that they are not skipped when opportunities for growth present themselves.”
She challenged big and already successful enterprises to trickle down their expertise to those in the rural areas who are in dire need of the required expertise to grow their businesses.
According to her, “43 percent of small-scale businesses in Nigeria are owned by women, that represents about over 23 million women. They know most of these concepts but the areas they have more challenges is the areas of access to market and finances. We need to have people who are willing to go back to rural areas to support these rural women to access capital.”
The Sosai Renewable Energies Company in its presentation to the meeting, disclosed that it was already supporting rural small-scale women in northern Nigeria, to building business infrastructure.
Ms. Habiba Ali, the Managing Director of the company said it is supporting women clusters in establishing and running Solar drying hubs, Solar kiosks and clean and improved cooking stoves for rural women.
With the “solar drying hubs, the women are providing services to the community and can dry fruits and vegetables, on and off season, for shorter days.” These she says, improves food security, reduces waste and protects the environment.
The UN women say the event was held in the continuing commemoration of the International Women’s day as it signifies “a call to action for investment in women’s economic empowerment, increased women’s leadership and political participation, abolition of harmful traditional practices and social norms, elimination of gender-based violence, raise awareness about women’s equality, fundraise for female-focused interventions, and acceleration of gender parity in all spheres of life.”
