Experts have urged women entrepreneurs in the country to adopt relevant digital transformation tools that give them the most competitive advantage to scale their businesses.
The experts spoke at a seminar organised by the Digital Transformation Center Programme Nigeria (DTC), an organisation co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union, and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The experts urged women entrepreneurs to be intentional in the adoption of digital and entrepreneurial skills and tools to will enable them to grow their businesses.
Amina Sambo-Magaji, Ag director of the digital literacy and capacity development department at the National Information Transformation Development Agency (NITDA) in her keynote address, said the participation of women in the digital space is crucial while emphasizing the need to increase their participation in the digital space from the current 25 percent.
Sambo-Magaji, who was represented by Ahmed Tambuwal, head of digital literacy and skills at NITDA, urged women to engage more in the tech sector, noting that technology is a major component of success for any business in the digital era.
“The good thing about technology is that you can participate from wherever you are and whatever you are currently engaged in,” Sambo-Mogaji said.
She explained that NITDA is working to ensure equal participation of women and men in the tech space and also strategizing to increase the number of programmes targeted at women, in terms of capacity building to access digital tools and skills.
Also, Thuweba Diwani, head of the project, DTC Nigeria, said that DTC is working in various capacities to create an enabling environment in improving the development of digital solutions and innovations for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
According to her, DTC is also accelerating the adoption of digital skills and tools for women entrepreneurs to help them scale their businesses.
She noted that women are not to just stay in their comfort zones, but need to come out and embrace change by being fearless. She added that women need to be focused and deliberate and intentionally to acquire new digital skills.
She also stressed the importance of mentorships, positive attitude and confidence by women entrepreneurs to drive their businesses.
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Tosin Abajo, assistant chief enterprise officer, south-west zonal office, SMEDAN, said that female entrepreneurship has seen tremendous growth in recent years but there is still a huge gap between men and women entrepreneurs.
Abajo highlighted some of the challenges that women entrepreneurs face ranging from access to funding, societal and cultural norms, lack of networking opportunities, lack of mentorship and support, and limited market access and training.
According to him, the challenges contribute to the gender gap in the country’s entrepreneurship landscape and therefore, hinder the growth of women-led businesses.
She explained that to address these challenges, there is a need for policymakers and stakeholders to create an enabling environment that supports and encourages women entrepreneurs by addressing these challenges.
“The full potential of women entrepreneurs can be unlocked to drive inclusive economic growth and a crucial way of creating an enabling environment through digitalisation,” she said.
Giving an overview of the seminar discourse, Gbeke Oshinowo, technical advisor, digital & entrepreneurship skills – women and youth, GIZ/DCT said the objective of the seminar is to demystify the fears of women entrepreneurs around digital transformation and identify gender barriers and ways to overcome them.
She noted that highlighting the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation of women entrepreneurs is a critical tool to drive the success of women-owned businesses.
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