Women in Nigeria have been urged to play a more active and frontal role in stimulating the growth of businesses that would lead to overall development of the economy.
In addition, they have been advised to pursue leadership roles in their communities and the corporate world so as to rise to the top echelon of decision making in order to champion policies and programmes that would ensure sustainable development.
The advice was given by Latanya Mapp Frett, president and chief executive officer, Global Fund for Women (GFW), who was the special guest speaker at the 4th edition of the Women Financing Women (WFW) Group meeting hosted by leading financial services provider, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and SME.NG (Nigeria’s SME Impact Investment Platform) in Lagos on Thursday,
June 25, 2020.
The WFM quarterly meeting, which was held virtually with no fewer than 30 registered attendees, provided a platform for women entrepreneurs to come together and share experiences on how the novel coronavirus pandemic has affected businesses; and proffer solutions to the various challenges posed by the pandemic.
The WFW Group, conceptualised by SME.NG in 2019, is an assemblage of women-led funds, investors and financial institutions with diverse portfolios that focus on assisting women to secure finance for their businesses in Nigeria. On the other hand, SME.NG is an impact investment platform that invests in Nigerian Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMES) to realise measurable environmental, social and financial returns.
According to Frett, the absence of women in key leadership positions has limited the ability and capacity of womenowned businesses, including Small and Medium Scale
Enterprises (SMES), to secure the relevant support to ensure their success.
She stated that, “the inability of women to reach the very top of leadership positions is a limitation to reach our goals. These include long term opportunities to influence the attainment of international sustainability targets in a manner that would impact positively on the well-being of women and their endeavours, especially in the area of business and other socio-economic activities”.
Frett informed that the Global Fund for Women has in the last 35 years intervened and supported women in various ways. She listed this to include funding of over 5,000 womenowned businesses across the world since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the creation of a feminist funding model, under which GFW works with a network of partners to ensure that women can fund the business of other women through grants of between $10,000 and $100,000 for a period of 3yrs.
