Guardian Forum charts path to W’African women’s success in business Thursday, 20 June 2013 00:00 By Roseline Okere News - National PARTICIPANTS at the ongoing Women of West Africa Entrepreneurship (WOWe) conference in Lagos yesterday identified lack of access to finance, lack of infrastructure, scarcity of quality human resources and gender inequality as some of the factors militating against women entrepreneurs in the sub-region. They expressed belief that these challenges were surmountable if the women developed the right attitude to work. According to the participants at the summit organised by Montgomery West Africa, women represent over 25 per cent of registered business owners in Nigeria; yet have access to less than three per cent of commercial banks’ finance. They, therefore, urged women entrepreneurs to develop positive attitude in order to surmount the various challenges confronting the growth of their businesses. Speaking at the event, Managing Director of Montgomery West Africa, Tori Abiola, noted that cultural obstacle remained one of the biggest challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the sub-region. According to her, “there is no doubt that the cultural obstacles faced by women are universally acknowledged. “Though it has been widely accepted that creating entrepreneurial opportunities, building capacity and financial literacy, business and financial management and ICT for women and girls are critical to economic development in Nigeria, there isn’t an impartial national platform that allows all the key stakeholders in this sector to meet, despite many high profile initiatives, funds, grants and training programmes available to empower and support women in this regard.” Abiola said that many women entrepreneurs were not aware or have the skills or network to take advantage of these initiatives designed for their development, stating: “It is obvious that the time is now for the women of Nigeria and the rest of Africa to drive their nation’s development to the next level.” And quoting Christine Lagards at the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, she said, “when women do better, economies do better.” On her part, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Management Transformation, Wuraola Abiola, urged women to have passion for business in order to succeed as entrepreneurs. “The woman entrepreneur should be able to deliver value to her customers, be consistent, persevere and determine to stay through ups and downs, identify the unique selling point and invest in relationships, be honest and remain brutally objective,” she said. “She should seek personal growth and develop the required skills, nurture her soul and identify her market.” More so, speaking on the role of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in assisting small businesses in Nigeria, General Manager, Listings, Sales and Retention, Taba Peterside, encouraged women entrepreneurs to patronise the NSE to expand their businesses. The NSE, she noted, has the Small and Medium Entrepreneur (SME) Board to assist the SME to raise capital. Peterside cited Omatek Computers, Vono Foam, Tantalisers and others as companies managed by women and are listed in the Stock Exchange.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:58:00 +0000
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