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Women’s economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development and giving women a chance to contribute to their economic welfare and their families through labour force engagement has been proven to bring gains in nearly all areas of development.
According to a recent report by PWC Nigeria, women account for 41% of the ownership of micro-businesses in Nigeria, with 23 million female entrepreneurs operating within this segment. Despite the numbers, a lot of female entrepreneur struggle to scale their businesses, due to a lack of access to start-up capital or capital for expansion and inadequate business training which creates a skills gap.
This is why MTN Foundation recently launched Y’elloprenuer, an initiative designed to help women achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions through funding. The first phase of the program was launched in partnership with the Bank of Industry, and the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC).
With research carried out by the foundation to ascertain why most grant initiatives fail, the team designed Y’elloprenuer to engage women using capacity-building sessions that will accommodate 500 women.
Of that figure, a final 150 who scale through with outstanding business plans will have access to an equipment loan of up to N2 million at a fixed interest rate of 2.5 per cent over 36 months. In addition, they will have access to advisory and business support services.
Last week, it was noticed that the women have past the first phase of the programme. 200 out of the 500 women who participated at the first stage, have been selected to pitch their businesses.
Among them was, Maryann Aondoakaa, the CEO Fellams Collection who is into shoe manufacturing.
Aondoakaa said that, she was honored to be among the 200 women who were picked stating that the Y’elloprenuer programme has been very impactful to her.
“The basic part of this initiative was the training for me. I got to learn how to scale my business, how to improve my operations positively and all I need to take my business to the next level.”
On her motivation into the business, she said, “First of all, I noticed that shoe manufacturing is a sector that females are very scare. Being a lover of good shoes, I decided to learn how to make shoes. But, this was quite challenging initially because the first person that I went to for mentorship, refused to teach me because I am a girl. That, became my major drive. I felt like it was a challenge to me and I needed to prove him wrong.”
Aondoakaa said with what she learnt from the training, she would leverage social media for brand promotion, awareness and advertisements because the world has gone digital and a whole lot of people are on social media, and it’s just the easiest way ti connect with people. “So, I want to leverage them to boost my business”.
For the founder, OMR Agro Ventures, Omolere Tosin, the Y’elloprenuer initiative is an eye opener for her. “Participating in the programme has opened my eye to many things which I took for granted. For example, I have learnt a lot about book keeping and it is helping me now. Because, keeping proper records is key to successful business.”
She said that, if chosen for the equipment loan, she will use the money to expand her business beyond her locality.
Omolere also want to use her business to reduce women unemployment as she intends to employ other women to into the business.
Corroborating, the CEO of Bimeli Events, Abimbola Olukosi and Founder Dewhouse Limited, Beatrice Ahaneku, said their experiences are not different from others. They pointed out they learnt a great deal from the programme especially about book keeping and customer relationships which they intend to infuse into their own businesses.
They also intend to use the equipment loan for expansion if selected.
Speaking to Daily Sun at the business pitch event, Joseph Akpata, Portfolio Manager for National Priority Portfolio in MTM foundation explained that the whole aim of the Y’elloprenuer initiative is to see how the foundation can support or contribute to the reduction of women unemployment in the country, and then advance women in enterpreneurship through capacity building and training. “So, as part of the structure of the initiative, we had capacity building session for 500 of them. They were trained in different areas of enterpreneurship study and then we had 200 shortlisted with guided criteria, so that, they can have a pitch session.
So we’ve concluded all those other stages and today what we’re having is the pitch session. So, the women are expected to come have their pitches in presence of industry experts who are the judges. So that, they can score them. The pitch session will take a period of five days because there are 200. So, after the pitch, out of the 200, 150 will be selected to receive the equipment loan support that will be given to them.”
Akpata said the expectation from the female enterpreneurs is such that they make good use of the support, so that they can use that to expand and grow their businesses
“This is the pilot phase and the plan is to roll out more phases such that we will have opportunity to support more Nigerian women because we strongly believe that when they do well, they will definitely contribute to the development of the country which will be good for every one of us”, he said.
Earlier at the media launch event, Director, MTN Foundation, Dr. Mosun Belo-Olusoga, highlighted the impact the Y’ellopreneur initiative will have on women-owned businesses in Nigeria. “This is a cause I am particularly passionate about, and I am gratified that MTN is demonstrating its continued commitment to supporting women’s development through the implementation of the Y’ellopreneur initiative.
The initiative will contribute to reductions in female unemployment and advance our development through training designed to enhance the entrepreneurial abilities of the 500 women,” she said.
Speaking on the selection of the Y’ellopreneur participants, Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya said, “We were particular about the types of business that we wanted to fund. For us, it was about the real economy, and today we are training women across a range of businesses including; manufacturing, processing, ICT, agriculture, waste management and recycling.
“It was also important that we had applications from women across Nigeria and we currently have women across the country who are part of the selected participants,” she said.
Also speaking at the event, Divisional Head, SME South, Bank of Industry, Obaro Osah said, “We understand that women are the backbone of entrepreneurship in Nigeria, and that is one of the reasons the Bank of Industry has put several initiatives in place to support women-led businesses at the same time helping them scale their business. We are excited to partner with the MTN Foundation on this initiative.”
