Helping low-income female entrepreneurs gain relevant digital and social media skills to enhance their businesses was the sole focus at the recently held DAME Initiative for women brought by The Wivesroundtable Foundation.
The Wivesroundtable Foundation, having seen the struggle many female entrepreneurs face with technology and social media, decided to start the DAME Initiative (Digital Academy for Mum Entrepreneurs), to help empower women entrepreneurs to position themselves and businesses better online.
According to the founder of The Wivesroundtable Foundation, Amaka Chibuzo-Obi, this initiative was borne out of desire to bridge the digital gender gap that sees many business women functioning way below capacity.
Speaking at the event, Amaka Chibuzo-Obi said, “This project was inspired by a friend of mine, a hardworking, highly enterprising woman who I knew could do so much better if she knew how to use Facebook, Instagram as well as other technological tools. I saw she couldn’t do a lot of things.
“Things many people would consider little digital tasks. Tasks such as taking good pictures and putting them up properly on social media, editing pictures and videos, tagging people on social media, using WhatsApp and WhatsApp for business and so on. I helped her as much as I could but then I realized that she was just one of probably millions of women with the same struggle. This is why we decided to do this, to give women a chance to learn these basic things and grow their confidence to show up online.”
The participants at the inaugural training were filled with so much joy that someone realized their struggle and did something to help them overcome it, without making them seem ignorant.
Tina, one of the participants, had this to say about the program, “my name is Tina Joseph. Before today, my neighbour has been the one who helps me upload pictures and make posts online. After the class today, I have learnt how to do so for myself. I now also know what people mean when they say things like username, profile picture, DM and so on. I learnt how to create a new Facebook and Instagram account, how to create a business account on facebook and instagram and the difference in features and benefits, between a normal account and business account. I am so happy to be part of this training today”.
“It is no news that female-run businesses are a huge contributor to the GDP of the nation. And a boost to this female economy will have a direct positive impact on the growth of the country. It is our belief that teaching these women basic digital skills will help them do so much better in business by making more sales and more money,” Amaka Chibuzo-Obi said.
The DAME Initiative held its first training on Thursday August 26th 2021 and its 2nd on Thursday the 9th of September at The Wivesroundtable Foundation office in Surulere, Lagos.
This training is to be a bi-monthly training and hopes to train 10,000 women in the next five years.
