Sanwo-Olu’s wife lauds Business Women Hub for initiatives

Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, the wife of the Lagos State governor, has lauded Business Women Hub (BWH) for its initiatives aimed at helping women-owned businesses to grow.

Speaking at the 2023 Annual Business Women Hub Conference, she said BWH has over the years earned a positive reputation for championing various initiatives aimed at the growth of female-owned businesses, especially through sales and marketing training, general business workshops, and financial sourcing for African businesses within their first five years of existence.

She said the organisation has been sustained as one of the notable platforms to make a strong statement and evolve a sustainable action plan to advance the narrative on women’s empowerment.

“It was also on record that the Business Women Hub had consistently kept faith with the celebration of International Women’s Day as another powerful avenue to recognize and celebrate the resilience and achievements of women in various fields of human endeavour,” Sanwo-Olu, represented by Olajumoke Saliu, wife of the chairman of Eredo Local Government Area of Lagos State, said.

Making reference to the 2023 International Women’s Day’s theme ‘Embrace Equity’, she said equity can be further broken down to imply justice, parity, and fair play, which also prioritises the need to expand the economics of the female gender.

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“In other words, even as efforts are being made to advance the frontiers of our economics as women using innovation and technology, justice and justness must be considered as key factors in doing this, our society must develop a strong system and structure to sustainably suppress all barbaric acts and injustice against women and the girl child, and truly work to enthrone fair play and equitable involvement of women in all facets of life,” she said.

Imelda Usoro-Olaoye, founder of BWH and managing partner of Thinkmint Nigeria, described BWH as a community positioned for the growth of female-owned businesses, with a special focus on those businesses that are still within their first five years of existence.

“Registered members of the community span over 1,200 women and spread into other African countries, as well as businesses owned by female Nigerians living in the diaspora. We keep building a network of highly skilled female entrepreneurs by providing them with valuable information, access to markets, finance, and new opportunities,” she said.

Olaoye said many small businesses fail because their owners make mistakes.

She said that since 2020 till date, the community has grown tremendously, adding that the amount of capacity building that members had received, if implemented, will scale up their businesses.