How would the world look if we truly put into action what we know about the benefits of uplifting women from poverty?
The Bank of Industry’s Growth Platform is Africa’s largest fully digitized executor of MSME interventions, hailed for its success in reaching over four million beneficiaries, across seven programmes, since 2016. One of the proudest achievements of the nationwide operation is its unusually effective targeting of women entrepreneurs: vulnerable but commercial proficient women who have the capacity to uplift their communities with their small businesses.
The economic exclusion of women is a global problem, especially for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Women face greater barriers to accessing financial services. While they lead an estimated 60 percent of Nigerian MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), they are significantly less likely than men to be banked, or to receive credit and loans from formal institutions. This situation is exacerbated by a lack of assets, trapping women in a cycle of economic stagnation and when women are excluded, whole households become vulnerable.
But women are central to the economic upliftment of communities. Global financial aid initiatives have long acknowledged that targeting women creates greater social impact, and distributes aid more effectively. Even with the crippling constraints of COVID-19, women are more likely than men to invest in the long-term success of their businesses. It is estimated that women’s labour is responsible for 60 to 80 percent of Nigeria’s farm produce, though women own only one percent of farm assets. Directing financial interventions at women, then, has an outsize positive impact.
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It’s thus been particularly heartening to see substantial female participation in various Growth Platform initiatives. The platform has tackled the problem of women’s financial exclusion head on – and today the majority of its beneficiaries are female. The platform has been able to disburse capital to over two million women-led MSMEs – 57.9 percent of beneficiaries. This includes opening over 300,000 first-time bank accounts and over two million new mobile wallets. Significantly, over $200 million has been disbursed to female-driven enterprises, utilizing the Growth Platform’s “human banks” (roving field agents) and technological infrastructure.
Other Growth Platform partner programs have had similarly significant impact on women’s empowerment – not least the National Women Empowerment Fund (NAWEF), a credit-extension program targeting women-owned micro-enterprises, launched in 2017. And in 2020, the Growth Platform entered into a partnership with Women’s World Banking seeking to deliver health insurance to over 270,000 female beneficiaries. The Growth Platform has also used its far-reaching networks to collect data on women-led MSMEs.
The Growth Platform is a case study in women’s financial upliftment, with its far-reaching access to communities of female informal traders, farmers, agents, and MSMEs. Take for example Suwaiba Aliu, chairperson of the Matam Masu Dubara women’s rice-processing institution, founded in 2008 in Zamfara State. Having trained over 800 women to proficiency in rice production, the institution still faced sustainability issues due to lack of financing.
The Growth Platform’s micro credit initiative helped Suwaiba’s group to swiftly access credit within days of consultation, enabling them to achieve profits up to ten times greater than before. They are now empowered to grow their enterprise, reinvest, and impact other women-led businesses in their communities.
Uplifting women in poor communities is crucial to unlocking Nigeria’s economic potential, eradicating poverty, and achieving sustainable growth. The success of the Growth Platform in prioritizing and supporting women beneficiaries is thus one of the most significant achievements of the operation. We invite international and domestic investors to join with us in furthering this entrepreneurial revolution.
To understand more of the Growth Platform’s operation, click here
Toyin Adeniji is an Executive Director at Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI); Uzoma Nwagba is the Chief Operating Officer of the Growth Platform. Read more at aidforproductivity.org.
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