Category: Women In Business

More women entrepreneurs are needed to create gender balance in business and political leadership positions. The Co-Founder, Ritetrac Consulting Nigeria Ltd, Mrs. Ojiugo Ajunwa, has taken it upon herself to mentor and encourage existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs to break the gender gap and compete just as strongly as men for business and other leadership positions. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

 

What Nigerian women are highly entrepreneurial has never been in doubt. Across all the sectors, successful women entrepreneurs dot the business landscape. However, many of them still face formidable challenges such as lack of access to capital and meaningful mentoring, which, sometimes, limit their capacity to compete with their male counterparts.

But, the Co-Founder, Ritetrac Consulting Nigeria Ltd, Mrs. Ojiugo Ajunwa, is leading a campaign, through mentoring, to help existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs break through what is widely described as class ceiling that has continued to make them appear to operate under their male counterparts’ shadow.

Mrs. Ajunwa has over 20 years of work experience in Information Technology (IT), event and project management, process improvement and digital/social media strategy consulting. And she has been leveraging her wealth of experience in these areas to mentor and nurture women to carve out successful careers in project management, for instance.

In doing so, Mrs. Ajunwa believes that a successful career in project management and indeed, other exciting career opportunities in virtually all the sectors, is one of the sure ways for women to break the gender gap and carve a niche for themselves, even to the point of given their male counterparts a run for their entrepreneurial prowess.

She said, for instance, that with the increasing demand for project management women   can compete just as strongly as men for such opportunity as with other professional disciplines.

Mrs. Ajunwa is also building a sustainable start-up ecosystem for women entrepreneurs, while also providing them with strategic business planning and result oriented business re-engineering solutions. She told The Nation that the goal is to help founders of various start-ups scale up their businesses and break new grounds.

She has been helping start-ups and other businesses to expand and sustain their businesses. In doing so, she said she believes there is scope for product innovation; that companies should constantly work to improve their products and services, build the right team and embrace business collaboration if they want to stay in the market for the long haul.

Apart from her mentorship programme to encourage women in business, Mrs. Ajunwa said she believes that building robust business networks are important, but women should start with smaller networks and then expand. She also said collaboration and bringing a different set of values to the workplace such belief in teamwork and creating a positive, communal work culture are also key.

As a management consultant, Mrs. Ajunwa is not a new comer in business. For instance, she designed and co-authored the ‘Conditional Grant Scheme for Local Governments,’ a training manual {guide to project management] for focal persons and stakeholders.

She was part of the team that facilitated the Project Management for Cancer Research in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, USA and Human Virology Institute, Nigeria.

Mrs. Ajunwa also set up a project management office and encouraged her team to obtain the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. She has also been working to raise awareness of the profession.

To further hone her skills, the Ritetrac boss is currently undergoing her PhD in Project Management at the Atlantic International University, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

While on the programme, she has been focusing on personal development, keeping open to feedback and constantly learning from successes as well as failures.

The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) was designed as a special economic zone that supports a wide range of industries. However, after initially focusing on attracting companies in the oil and gas sector, it has expanded its focus by targeting other sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, health, technology, and green energy. LADOL’s push for diversification, says its CEO, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, will turn the zone into a circular economy and deepen local content. Group Business Editor SIMEON EBULU and Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA report.

 

 

It takes a woman with extra-ordinary energy, courage, expertise and, above all, patriotism to play in the heights of the economy that are largely male-dominated and deliver result that has continued to astound and dwarf the performance of her male counterparts.

Since joining the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), a special economic zone inside Apapa Port, Lagos, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Amy Jadesimi, has not shied away from playing big in prime sectors such as maritime/shipping and oil & gas.

For instance, under her charge, LADOL undertook the construction of the fabrication and integration yard of the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) oil platform,  EGINA.

The EGINA FPSO is the world’s largest offshore oil production vessel, and was specifically built for French oil giant Total to exploit its EGINA oil field off the coast of Nigeria.

It is the first FPSO to be fabricated and integrated in Africa and the largest vessel ever to berth in Nigeria. And Samsung Heavy Industries’ (SHI’s) subsidiary – Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN) – got the contract to build the EGINA FPSO in 2013.

Expectedly, since its inauguration, commendations from companies, stakeholders and governments across the globe have continued to pour in for Jadesimi for spearheading the successful execution of the integration facility.

However, while this is on, the 44-year old United Kingdom (UK)-trained medical doctor- turned businesswoman has turned her attention to another game-changing strategy to further enhance the fortunes of LADOL and, by extension, the Nigerian and African economies.

She is expanding the focus of LADOL and targeting non-oil and gas clients in manufacturing, agriculture, health, technology, and green energy sectors. The sectors are considered key to driving industrialisation in Nigeria and Africa.

Jadesimi, who noted that most LADOL’s clients initially were the international oil companies (IOCs) and other oil & gas firms, said LADOL was expanding and diversifying from that sector to support the afore-mentioned sectors where it is looking for new opportunities and clients it can provide services to.

She said, on the agricultural side, that LADOL was looking to leverage its cold storage and facilities to support agricultural clients. According to her, this has become necessary in view of the lack of cold storage for those in agro-allied export business.

Jadesimi said aside targeting technology companies that want to set up data centres in Nigeria, LADOL was also looking to support operators in the manufacturing sector such as those who want to assemble or manufacture solar power units.

She explained that as a free zone, LADOL was under the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment, as such the recent endorsement of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was in line with enabling LADOL to support manufacturing in Nigeria, and Africa. She also said the health sector was under LADOL’s circular master plan, hence, it was looking at having a cluster of companies on the hospital side. This, according to her, will include testing, manufacturing and diagnostic. “We are still talking to several companies right now in those different areas about setting up a health care cluster inside LADOL,” she stated.

Explaining the modality, Jadesimi said the company already had preliminary business analysis and feasibility study, which it had shared with companies it had been discussing with to show the business opportunity.

She, however, said, there are other companies that have done their feasibility, and they would come into the zone, set up their companies while LADIOL would support them. “So, this is about us supporting other people’s businesses; we wouldn’t be running health care businesses ourselves; we will be supporting other people as they do it,” Jadesimi clarified.

She added that LADOL would help incubate businesses that come to the zone and also help them with feasibility studies. “We are doing something that hasn’t been done before, and creating a sustainable environment. Evidence shows that sustainability boosts profitability,” Jadesimi stated.

What this means, according to her, is that if a company is sustainable, it would make more money in the medium to long term than if it isn’t sustainable, which invariably means that how a company is set up and how it does its business is important. “This is a relatively new area, and we have to go beyond just being a landlord to work with people to help them create a successful business,” she emphasised.

Although some companies LADOL is talking to are big, as such they will just come and set up on their own, LADOL is, however, building facilities to accommodate smaller companies that do not have the money to build huge factories, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Justifying this approach, Jadesimi said: “We are working with SMEs because 80 per cent of jobs that need to be created in Africa will be created by SMEs. So, to help SMEs, we build facilities. To be an SME and manufacture, you don’t have to build a huge factory.

“So, we are building facilities so that the companies can rent our spaces whether it is office space or workshop space, and they can run their businesses out of those spaces that we have provided which will enable more local companies, more SMEs in particular to be able to operate locally and contribute to the local and pan-African market.”

Deepening local content

Operators in some of the sectors targeted by LADOL are optimistic that its ongoing diversification strategy, which is a shot in the arm of the Federal Government’s drive for local content development, will trigger massive job creation and enhanced technology transfer.

Such optimism is not without basis, considering that LADOL’s involvement in the EGINA project was a victory for local content.  Jadesimi confirmed this much when she said: “From local content perspective, the EGINA project was very significant victory for local content.

“By enabling the FPSO to come into Nigeria, to be actually fabricated and integrated in Nigeria, it set a standard that future projects will achieve much higher levels of local content.”

According to her, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), was instrumental to the success of the project and had set the stage for deepening local content by insisting that whoever did that FPSO had to integrate and fabricate locally because the facility has to create 30,000 jobs.

“Most of these jobs will be outside LADOL because a facility of this kind has a 10-15 times multiplier effect on job creation. So, for every one job created in LADOL, 10-15 jobs are created outside of LADOL.

“And if you look at other countries that have done this kind of work, you see the same kind of impact. So, this is actually a strategic local content capacity development, and by having this facility we have increased the demand for local fabrication and integration,” Jadesimi said.

Explaining further, she said if something was fabricated and integrated in Nigeria, its job creation potential would be highly significant. Her words: “When they fabricate in other parts of the world, they do 70 per cent of the work outside of the yard where integration is taking place.

“In the case of Nigeria, we are doing the fabrication in Port Harcourt; you will now put what you have fabricated on a badge and now badge those fabricated pieces to LADOL to be aggregated and integrated into a larger hub. That’s how you get that strategic increase in job creation.”

Noting that it was the same thing with engineering and design, Jadesimi said one interesting thing about LADOL’s push for local content was that it significantly lowers the cost of doing business.

According to her, engaging a Nigerian welder, engineer or designer, for instance, will be much cheaper than engaging a foreigner or flying him into Nigeria, as the costing of the project will be in dollars. “If you have Nigerians doing that job, you have higher resilience, higher accountability and its much cheaper. So, it’s a win-win not just for Nigeria, but for the company,” she added.

Jadesimi said interest by operators in some  sectors being targeted for setting up in Nigeria and Africa has been on the increase. She attributed the increase interest to the realisation that their system is not secure if they don’t have significant presence in the market they are serving or wish to serve.

She said LADOL was in a way reversing the resource curse by leveraging the business it was doing with petroleum companies and IOCs, and expanding that and diversifying away from that sector to support agricultural and green energy sector. This, model, according to her, is being replicated across Africa.

“We are working with an international organisation called P4G (Partnering for Green Growth) and another British company and together we are replicating the LADOL model in Ethiopia and Kenya,” Jadesimi divulged.

Partnering for Green Growth (P4G) and the Global Goals 2030 is a new initiative with the ambition of becoming the world’s leading forum for developing concrete public-private partnerships at scale to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. The Government of Denmark is providing initial funding for P4G from 2018-2022.

The road to a circular economy

However, LADOL’s latest push into other sectors outside oil & gas is hardly surprising. According to Dr. Jadesimi, since the plan for LADOL started in 2001, it was designed to be a special economic zone that supports a wide range of industries, and over the years, as the plan evolved, that core vision and mission to make Nigeria the hub for industrial activities in Africa never changed.

This was why in 2017, based on the success of Phase 1 of the development of the zone, LADOL rolled out Phase 11 of the zone’s development and created a new master plan. The new master plan identified companies that will be able to work togeth er inside LADOL free zone and form a circular economy, which Jadesimi described as “A very unique and attractive business model.”

A circular economy, according to experts, is an economic system that eliminates waste and the continual use of resources. The circular economy aims to keep products, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer, thus improving the productivity of these resources. All “waste” should become “food” for another process: either a by-product or recovered resource for another industrial process or as regenerative resources for nature.

Jadesimi said although building a circular economy is a challenge, LADOL has been able to do that because it started with a master plan where it did analysis of vatious industries, even different companies and identified which could work inside its zone, next to each other, in a synergistic manner, so, the input of one is the waste of another.

She gave more insight: “Some of the agricultural companies we are targeting are into cashew nut processing, which is a big untapped industry in Nigeria. The waste from the cashew nut processing is going to be used for our biomass plant and that will reduce the cost of power in the zone by 90 per cent.

“And there are other benefits that will come. To have a circular economy, you need to build the backbone all through the zone and we are in the process of doing that now where you have the utility backbone or the utility corridor that connects all our clients in the zone and allows them to share services, waste, even materials, and we are also building something that will enable them share equipment.

“So, this will be one of the only truly circular economies in the world, and I think the first sustainable industrial special economic zone. And as I said, the master plan that we created is already being replicated. So, this is something that has been 20 years in the making and it’s now becoming a reality on the ground which is very exciting.”

Her successes notwithstanding, Jadesimi agrees that gender inequality is real hence she canvassed the need to level the playing field for women to achieve their full potential. “It is a reality that women get paid less than men for doing the same job; there are disproportionately fewer women in leadership positions than men.

“Women get excluded from education. They get forced to marry, either physically forced or economically forced to marry, when they would rather not marry. It is a reality that across the world, to varying extent, women are relatively disenfranchised; equality has not been achieved anywhere in the world,” she said.

The LADOL boss said this is despite the fact that women-led start-ups have a much-higher survival rate. “Women-led businesses are two or three times more likely to survive. In Nigeria, 50 per cent of the population is women. So, we can’t leave women behind and expect to succeed,” she said.

Despite being a nurse, Shirley Nwobodo, based in Niger State, has managed to diversify her income. Besides her profitable venture in home-based medical care, she is also making money from shoe and hat making, while also selling herbal cosmetic products. Her recent expansion into Kano and Abuja markets, where she distributes herbal cosmetics products, attests to her multi-tasking nature, reports DANIEL ESSIET.

 

 

The would probably pass as Nigeria’s most multi-tasking woman entrepreneur. At first, Shirley Nwobodo, a Niger State-based entrepreneur, was earning her living from nursing and midwifery. In the area where she lived, she said access to health care was limited. Besides, finding a qualified nurse, particularly one skilled in geriatric care, according to her, was not easy, which was why Shirley seized the opportunity to offer comprehensive health care services to the elderly and the terminally ill.

The snag, however, was irregular salaries and poor remuneration for her services. She, however, realised that she could augment her income by delving into other vocations, even if they are not related to her original calling as a nurse. This was how Shirley ventured into hat making. She told The Nation that she had to learn the craft, and from there started working on hats as part of her business.

A steady stream of customers placing orders for her bespoke pieces attests to her dexterity in hat making.

Still determined to further expand her income base, Shirley also decided to take some time off to learn shoemaking. She said she first tried working with artisans and was amazed by the beauty and craft they possessed and that’s how her shoe making unit was born. She already has a range of footwear in various colours and designs. The shoes blend traditional motifs and fabrics with contemporary styles and designs. She has also set up a home workshop, and has begun searching for exceptional talented artisans who need an outlet to showcase their incredible craft.

Shirley also recently diversified into selling of herbal cosmetic products, with outlets in Kano and Abuja.

 

Impact Investors Foundation (IIF), a non-profit organisation, promotes impact investing in Nigeria and collaboration among key stakeholders. It’s Projects Lead, Ms. Maria Glover, is leveraging her years of experience in banking, capacity building for youths, as well as the foundation’s impact investment-readiness programmes to prepare social entrepreneurs for investment and boost their access to funding from various partners. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

 

Some critical gaps exist in the Nigerian impact investing space. From knowledge gap to lack of awareness about impact investing and inadequate education of key stakeholders within the sector, these gaps in the ecosystem have resulted in the limited number of investment-ready businesses in Nigeria.

However, addressing or bridging the gaps to encourage the development of impact investing in Nigeria has been the major preoccupation of Impact Investors Foundation (IIF), which promotes the growth of impact investing in Nigeria.

Founded in 2018, IIF, a non-profit organisation, engages and collaborates with key stakeholders active in the impact investing space to unlock capital for social investments in Nigeria. It is a multi-sector collaboration which comprises the Ford Foundation, Africa Capital Alliance, Businessday Media, Bank of Industry and Dalberg Advisors.

And the foundation has never hidden its commitment to eliminating barriers to social impact investing, by building an effective and supportive ecosystem that supports the growth of investment pipelines and for building sustainable impact.

In the driving seat of the push to eliminate barriers to social impact investing is the foundation’s Projects Lead, Ms. Maria Glover. Maria, who heads the IIF’s secretariat and is responsible for implementing its vision and strategies, and coordinating projects, understands the importance of building a robust ecosystem for impact investing to thrive.

Through the foundation’s Annual Deal Summit, Maria has been helping impact enterprises become investment-ready, enabling them to overcome growth barriers and scale their solutions that are addressing some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges.

The summit is an initiative that seeks to address a critical gap in the ecosystem responsible for the limited number of investment-ready businesses in Nigeria. The objective is to prepare social entrepreneurs through a rigorous impact investment-readiness programme to become investment-ready to access funding from various investor partners.

It also exposes participants to impact investors and match them during the deal summit. It also seeks to accelerate quality deal flows within the impact investing community and to support quality investment pipelines for impact investors.

At the 2020 edition of the Deal Summit, which held virtually, last week, there were 15 start-ups that presented their ideas before investors. Funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the IIF’s 2nd Annual Deal Summit allowed participants gain increased knowledge of impact investing and also understand what impact investors want.

The foundation’s first summit was held on October 10, 2019, at the Oriental Hotels, Lagos. The event witnessed about 19 investors/observers, and a diverse group of 15 investees, representing a range of sectors and regions across Nigeria participated in two pitch sessions each.

Maria, who has been in the forefront of the foundation’s efforts, through these summits and other programmes, to democratize impact investing, holds double honours in Economics and Education from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

She also earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Leicester, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in NGO and Development Management from the University of East London, UK.

A problem-solver, learning & development strategist and trainer with extensive knowledge and experience in development and management of capacity building programmes for youths, Maria is a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME)  consultant with 10 years knowledge in setting up and running start-ups.

An Associate Member of the Learning and Development Network International, she holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Leadership & Management, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University.

Maria also has several years of experience in Retail, Corporate and Investment Banking, and has worked with FBN Merchant Bankers Limited (now FBNQuest Merchant Bank) and Zenith Bank PLC.

She has been bringing her wealth of experience to bear on IIF, which she joined after serving as pioneer executive secretary at the Knowledge Exchange Centre, where she was saddled with the responsibility of developing and implementing the strategic plan for the organisation.

Under Maria’s charge as Projects Lead, IIF has seen a flurry of activities among traditional investors, policymakers, philanthropists and researchers, with impact investments empowering many entrepreneurs with transformative ideas to solve real world problems.

She has also helped step up the Foundation’s program focus areas, which include Knowledge Sharing and Networking (KSN), Capacity Building, and Policy Advocacy.

For instance, IIF has raised its awareness campaign about impact investing, while educating critical stakeholders within the sector through its programs and activities.

It has also been supporting the development of the ecosystem through specialized master classes for service providers, government, and suppliers of impact capital and investee companies to bridge knowledge gaps and improve sectoral knowledge at all levels.

The foundation’s policy advocacy machinery has also never been this vibrant, as it has stepped up its engagement with government officials and investors, and commissioned research on policy and regulatory bottlenecks that inhibit the supply and demand of impact capital.

Maria said her current effort is geared towards encouraging companies making early investments to not only facilitate impact investment, but also integrate same into their corporate culture and operations.

The job has also given her a broader platform to share ideas with young and up-coming entrepreneurs. More importantly, she said it has challenged her to think deeply and meaningfully about ways businesses can be catalysts for sustainable social and economic impact.

She has, therefore, never ceased to encourage existing and prospective entrepreneurs and investors to always think about the social and economic impact that they make and how they can up the ante.

However, of particular interest to Maria, in this regard, is the emergence of investment firms that offer funds to promote clean energy and green bonds that finance environmental projects.

The Managing Director/CEO, Olivet Cloud Solutions Nigeria Limited, an integrated Information Technology (IT) solutions company, Engr. Chioma Okoli, has her finger in every pie. After building a thriving ICT company, with a workforce of over 40 staff and a customer base of over 5, 000, she diversified into manufacturing. Her Hopelyn brand of quality cleaning products is already selling like hot cake. The successful entrepreneur owes her rise to fame and fortune to consistency, innovativeness and flexibility. CHIKODI OKEREOCHA and KELVIN OSA-OKUNBO report.

 

The sees opportunities where others see challenges. This was why at a time most business owners and managers were ruing the dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Managing Director/CEO, Olivet Cloud Solutions Nigeria Limited, an integrated Information Technology (IT) solutions company, Engr. Chioma Okoli, saw the challenge posed by the outbreak of the virus as an opportunity and quickly ceased it by branching out into manufacturing of cleaning products.

Today, Engr. Chioma’s Hopelyn brand of cleaning products, which includes hand and surface sanitizers, air-freshners and disinfectants, among others, is in hot demand. Effortlessly, the products are filling the market niche opened by the growing demand for cleaning, decontamination and fumigation products across the country, following Nigerians’ growing consciousness around hygiene to contain the virus.

It all started around December (2019),  even before the virus eventually found its way into Nigeria in February. “It (COVID-19) hasn’t come into Nigeria, but there was sensitisation around hygiene and how we should leave,” Engr. Chioma recalled, noting that all she did to launch herself into the production of cleaning products was a research in December, which showed that people looking for hygiene products and cleaning services were much.

“There is actually a tool in Google where you see what people are looking for in a particular location, and how many people are looking for that product or service in a location. One day, I clicked on a particular sanitizer and I saw that people looking for hand sanitizer that has 80 per cent alcohol in Ikeja, Lagos was over 100, 000. I went home that day and said this is a very high demand. I also saw that people were looking for cleaning and decontamination services,” she narrated.

That set the stage for Engr. Chioma to throw her hat into the manufacturing ring. The software specialist turned industrialist said she approached her elder sister’s husband who is a pharmacist to teach her how to do hand sanitizer. Apart from advising her to first do analysis, the pharmacist also linked her up to a Chemist who helped her to analyse the sanitizer. “That was how we started, and that was how the vision came,” she told The Nation.

She said she called her lawyer to register the business since it was one of the criteria to get registered by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). While the NAFDAC registration was on, she did the first production, which was the sample she submitted to the agency. She also took advantage of a programme organised by the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) in Agege, Lagos, to share the sample free and hear people’s feedback. “I was so amazed. After the programme, a lot of people requested for the product,” she said.

That signalled the beginning of Engr. Chioma’s hugely rewarding venture into manufacturing. “During the lockdown, something funny happened. I found out that I sold 15, 000 bottles of sanitizers,” she announced gleefully, adding that before she knew what was happening, opportunity for decontamination services also came, with registration process for that aspect of the cleaning business currently ongoing.

She revealed that it was money made from the cleaning and decontamination business that sustained the IT business during the COVID-19 lockdown period from March till around July. “Since we ventured into this field of cleaning, decontamination and fumigation, I have never looked back and I can assure you the cleaning business is doing well. It grew to sustain the ICT business during the pandemic,” Engr. Chioma said.

Indeed, containment measures put in place to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic dealt severe blow to the global economy, including Nigeria. The unprecedented disruption in business, economic and financial activities caused by the scourge left operators in virtually all the sectors in Nigeria screaming blue murder.

Nigeria’s once thriving ICT sector, where Engr. Chioma had successfully built a world-class ICT company specialising in developing custom and bespoke software solutions, was not spared. For instance, Olivet Cloud lost over 50 per cent of its clients to COVID-19. It also shed some weight by shutting down one of its branches and retrenching some of its staff.

However, for the Olivet Cloud boss, it was time to think outside the box and turn the challenge tossed on her business path by COVID-19 into opportunity. And she wasted no time in grabbing the opportunity created by the huge demand for cleaning products to venture into manufacturing after seven years of running Olivet Cloud and calling the shot in the ICT sector for 15 years.

“My entrance into manufacturing of cleaning products has proven that something good came out of the pandemic. The Corona virus has been a blessing,” the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) certified engineer, confessed, adding that the demand for Hopelyn brand of cleaning products has been overwhelming to the extent that meeting up demand has been challenging.

A 2008 Bachelor Degree holder in Electronic Engineering (Software) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Masters in Information Technology, Engr. Chioma said she owes her rising profile in ICT and manufacturing to consistency, flexibility, innovativeness and of course, the God factor. “Our motivating factor has been keeping at it, remaining consistent. That is what I will advise young start – ups to do,” she said.

That was not all. “If you want to remain relevant, you must be constantly thinking innovatively and ready to learn something new in the industry. Learning is a constant practice in this industry. You must have an open mind to learn and remain relevant in the industry,” she said, adding that “God’s mercy has also helped us thus far.”

According to her certification is also key. “Anybody that wants to remain and play in the ICT space, for instance, must constantly update his or her knowledge of trends in the sector. This is key because of evolving technology, as something new comes up all the time’’, she said.

However, Chioma’s over 15 years’ experience in ICT and now, manufacturing, has not been a walk in the park. There have been challenges. She said, for instance, that the first three years of the business was very challenging, especially around grooming the right skills set to drive the business. “In this industry, it is not easy to build an ICT skills set,” she said, adding that compliance was also an issue.

But, how did she get round the challenges and still managed to turn Olivet Cloud, which started out with less than N50,000, into a flourishing ICT company with four branches across the country and 40 staff under her payroll? At first, she started a graduate training programme to grow the right ICT skills set, partnering with firms in South Africa, SAGE, Google and Zoho, among other known companies.

“We picked young graduates and started training them. We gave them work. That was the strategy that we used. This explains why we have people with many years’ experience in our company today. That training and getting them involved in the business helped a lot. That is the winning strategy we used to get the right skills set,” Chioma explained.

Continuing, she said, “It’s a story of consistency, keeping at what you know how to do best. That has been my overriding principle.” She pointed out that this was how she was able to hit the milestone in the fourth year of the business. “We began to work with many government establishments.

“We began to delve into some sectors that were very profitable. God began to open doors for us. We worked for many companies in many countries. That was our breakthrough. We decided not to give up. And things have stabilised. We have a customer base of over 5, 000,” Engr. Chioma said, adding that the company was already looking at expanding into Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 2021.

 

Carrying other entrepreneurs along

Intelligent, versatile and incredibly humourous, Engr. Chioma has since activated a programme aimed at giving back to the society, through SME Business Clinic, which she founded. “What we do in the Clinic is to teach people, using our rich resource base of consultants, how to run their business. We match the trainees with people with rich backgrounds in their sectors,” she explained.

The ICT specialist cum industrialist hopes to leverage the Clinic’s training programme to help halt the growing rate of disappearance of businesses in Nigeria. “I am not happy the way businesses are closing in Nigeria, she declared, adding, “That is the reason we set up the SME Business Clinic to give back to society.

She explained further: “We teach people how to come up with a business strategy because that is the key in driving a successful business.

“Sadly, when people are setting up business in Nigeria, they go and get a bank loan, they have not researched; they have not come up with a strategy for that business paying for itself. People often make the mistake of first going to borrow money.

“Most times, of course, they kill the business. We have trained people on the methodology of growing business organically.  We train people to come up with an idea of how to grow a business.”

Despite playing in largely male dominated industries, the renowned engineer and industrialist believes that things are looking up for women in business. According to her, there are lots of organisations and professional groups that are now helping to drive the initiative to help more women entrepreneurs.

“Women have been blessed by God to multi-task, they are better at handling many tasks at the same time. When women bring this gift into the industry, they will always succeed. Women are being emancipated by many NGOs to get out of poverty. A lot of women are being encouraged to get into many careers. I will advise more women to come out,” she said.

Chioma also said many people prefer to give jobs to women than men, because they believe if they put their money into a woman’s hand, it is better utilised.  “Women often deliver the jobs. More women should come out. There is this desire in us that whenever we want to do something, we put all efforts into it.

‘’Women hardly walk away from their responsibility. It is that grace to keep innovating, working on it that keeps the entrepreneurial spirit of women running. There are challenges, but once you know your onions, nobody will intimate you. I encourage women to be good at what they do,” she concluded.

 

 

 

By Adeola Ogunlade

 

The Chairman, Board of Directors, So Fresh, Mrs. Kehinde Olomojobi, has said the company plans to spend $10 million to expand its food retail stores across Africa.

Olomojobi made this known at a press conference held in Lagos, during the week, to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary.

While noting that there is so much potential in the food retail industry, she said So Fresh was willing to tap into the industry’s enormous opportunities.

To this end, Olomojobi said So Fresh aims to invest over $10 million as it drives her expansion plans to surpass 100 stores across the West African region.

According to her, the company will make the investment while still focused on building a healthy African Continent, creating jobs and expanding the learning and capacity in the food retails space.

Olomojobi stated that presently, So Fresh has been able to attract equity investment agreement of €360, 000, with good corporate governance, beautiful structures and quality manpower that can attract more investors.

She said that the impact of So Fresh on the Nigerian economy will be huge, as it will provide a viable outlet to small holder farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, facility technicians and other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

While noting that every new outlet opened by So Fresh will put a smile on the faces of Nigerians, Olomojobi added that the company’s growth will continue to be predicated on its focused drive and consistency in maintaining high standards for food safety and quality products.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer, So Fresh, Mrs. Olagoke Balogun, reiterated the company’s commitment towards making healthy food easily accessible thereby ensuring good health and wellbeing for Nigerians.

Balogun said: “So Fresh will continue to play its part in supporting the achievement of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals  2 and 3 in Nigeria, as we  expand our reach across the nation”.

Balogun added that So Fresh will continue to inspire people to live healthier and happier lives, by enriching them with fresh, wholesome, nutrient-rich and delicious meals.

“So Fresh continues to be at the forefront of the healthy lifestyle and wellness revolution in Nigeria by promoting healthier eating alternatives and habits in line with its mission: Inspiring You to Live Fresh! Live Healthily”, he said.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) puts the share of women-owned companies participating in international trade at 20 per cent. It also said an estimated one billion women are unable to fully participate in the global economy. In the developing countries, including Nigeria, about 36 per cent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are said to be partially or fully owned by women. However, a global campaign to increase women participation in international trade has gained momentum. Those behind the push say that gender equality is key to achieving the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’ DANIEL ESSIET reports.

 

 

Multilateral agency International Trade Centre (ITC) is currently examining areas that affect women’s entrepreneurship globally. Some of the critical areas that have come under the Geneva-based agency’s scrutiny, The Nation learnt, include macroeconomic risks, entrepreneurial business environment, access to finance, availability of business skills, training and social services, among others.

Perhaps, to underscore its commitment to turning the tide in favour of women-led businesses as far as international trade is concerned, ITC also went a notch higher, urging organisations to work with  governments to  help it better understand what the obstacles are and how they can be addressed.

Founded in 1964, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, ITC is an intergovernmental organisation that fosters inclusive and sustainable economic development.

Its Head, SheTrades lnitiative, Vanessa Erogbogbo, said there was a need for renewed commitment, internationally and regionally, to support women-led businesses.

SheTrades builds the capacity of women-led firms and producers to compete in global markets. The initiative works with governments, corporations and business support organisations to create the right conditions through policies, data, markets and partnerships.

It is easy  to see why the centre is channeling its energy and resources to boasting women-led businesses and increasing their participation in international trade. For one, the move, according to Erogbogbo, has become evident in terms of job creation and financial emancipation.

For this to happen, she said it would require leveraging networks of women-led businesses to find potential synergies, facilitate trade among them and together advocate about their needs to policymakers.

More importantly, current statistics on women-owned companies’ participation in international trade are unflattering; they, therefore, speak of the urgent need to push more possibilities into the hands of women entrepreneurs through various empowerment initiatives.

For instance, the centre puts the share of women-owned companies participating in international trade at 20 per cent, while an estimated one billion women are unable to fully participate in the global economy.

The ITC, however, noted that a significant proportion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) around the world are owned by women. It added that in developing countries, including Nigeria, around 36 per cent of MSMEs are partially or fully owned by women.

However, while this may be encouraging, the 20 per cent share of women-owned companies participating in international trade is seen by the ITC and, indeed, other experts in international trade as meagre.

It is, therefore, hardly surprising that tilting this trade imbalance in favour of women has become top priority for ITC. And it appears to have clearly worked out strategies to empower women-owned businesses across the globe.

One of such strategies is driving change for women through W20, an international movement, which aims to “contribute to laying a solid foundation for global economic recovery based on a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.”

According to Erogbogbo, more women have to be empowered to overcome financial barriers and launch their own ventures, thereby changing the status quo. She advocated for an investment environment that incorporates a gender lens at all levels of decision-making in national, global political and economic bodies.

The Minister of Small Business Development,  South Africa, Hon. Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, could not agree less, saying that one of the objectives of ITC should be the onboarding of African suppliers to its women empowerment platform.

“This must be closely managed to ensure the participation of SMEs, particularly women- and youth- owned businesses,” Ntshavheni advised.

Similarly, the President, International Government Affairs and Sustainability, United Parcel Service (UPS), Penelope Naas, said women-owned businesses face barriers including discriminatory legislation, difficulty accessing capital and insufficient formal networks for expanding internationally.

She, however, said UPS and the UPS Foundation were proud to commit resources and industry know-how to empower women to overcome the obstacles through its ‘Women Exporters Programme’.

By leveraging its expertise in facilitating cross-border trade and e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses, Naas added that UPS and its partners provide the training and networks necessary to enable women entrepreneurs to engage in trade.

Her words: “We know that helping more women-led firms to export is key to unlocking more prosperity for communities around the globe. The Programme has trained more than 6, 000 women entrepreneurs through 35 events in markets around the globe.”

In Nigeria, Africa’s largest and most populous economy, 88 per cent of women entrepreneurs reported that UPS’s training activities improved their packaging, labelling and marketing knowledge.

Naas also confirmed that every woman entrepreneur surveyed across all countries said they planned to attend similar events under the ITC SheTrades and UPS partnership in the future.

The Executive Director, ITC, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, noted that achieving the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, which includes a global target to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, will require political commitment and leadership from both the public and private sectors.

The UN’s ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ commits to eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development by 2030 world-wide, ensuring that no one is left behind. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda was a landmark achievement, providing for a shared global vision towards sustainable development for all.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development enshrines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.

Coke-Hamilton added that 2030 Agenda called for more targeted assistance to support women’s participation in and benefit from the economy.

Aligning with ITC’s commitment to gender equality through the promotion of sustainable and inclusive trade, she explained that the SheTrades Initiative was aimed connecting three million women to markets by 2021.

The Secretary-General, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), John Denton, said many of the risks posed by the current global economic downturn will inevitably fall on SMEs, especially vulnerable groups such as women.

With this in mind, he said ICC’s ‘Save Our SMEs’ campaign called for governments to design interventions to focus on small businesses and the two billion workers they employ in the real sector of the global economy.

According to Denton, the economic shock induced by COVID-19 will also likely include a considerable trade finance shortfall. “ICC conservatively estimates that $2 trillion to $5 trillion in credit will be needed to support the recovery of imports and exports.

“Given that SMEs, businesses in developing countries and women entrepreneurs tend to face greater obstacles when accessing trade finance, the private and public sectors must work together to address the trade finance gap and ensure greater access to capital for these groups,” he stated.

A key area of priority, Denton noted, must be greater understanding of the challenges that SMEs and women entrepreneurs face, and the development of a suite of policies that provide them with appropriate support and enhanced access to global markets.

One of those who have responded to this is the founder of AWP Network, Ms Mary Olushoga. As a woman founder, she has had to train and help more women establish businesses. She believes Nigerian women are among the most entrepreneurial on the globe, but are still greatly underrepresented as owners of SMEs.

Overall, Olushoga sees women’s access to business finance as being relatively poor. However, her organisation provides participating businesses mentorship, market connections, and access to capital to help them grow and expand.

She said business advisors connected with AWP offer meeting with entrepreneurs and content are tailored to address challenges women entrepreneurs face.

Visit: 

http://www.companyincorporationdubai.com/