As part of its efforts to ensure the sustainability of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Sprout Digital (formerly Sprout Consulting), have collaborated to empower about 90 women-owned Nigerian businesses with digital skills.
The intensive three-month hands-on training provided participants with innovative tools and digital skills necessary for a smooth transitioning into a more competitive global marketplace.
The project, which is also part of the ITC ‘She Trades’ initiative aimed at facilitating the participation of women-owned businesses in international trade through business support, training and global visibility.
To drive the seamless adoption of digital tools for unique business expansion, beneficiaries were assigned personal coaches who actively guided participants’ during their digital transformational journey.
“The training is designed to be quite practical. We are already seeing a definite shift in the ability of women-owned businesses to trade online. Coupled with personal coaching, we are certain that these businesses will perform extremely well financially in the months ahead,” Babatunde Anwo-Ade,
chief technology officer and partner for Sprout Digital, said.
He said that the intensive 3-month training sets the tone for more women-owned businesses to leverage potential digital opportunities for growth.
According to Babatunde, the transition will consequently spur a revenue increase which is necessary for economic development.
“It’s a really exciting project. We’ve seen real participation and growth from a good percentage of women-owned businesses that we are engaged with,” he said.
Adenike Egwuenu-Bright, Sprout Digital Training facilitator, said with the partnership participants are bound to experience a long-term impact of the digital training.
“This project goes beyond now to impact the women and their businesses in various ways, like increasing their sales and generating more leads from the online space that they were previously not exposed to,” said Egwuenu-Bright.
Abi Abraham, a beneficiary and founder of Flax Medical, said the training was a steep but pleasant learning curve with fully supportive coaches and classmates.
“The workshop afforded me the opportunity to convert customers from all over the world using digital tools like WhatsApp Business, Instagram for Business, optimised website and email marketing,” said Abraham.
