Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is riddled with challenges; from general issues like a lack of funding and an enabling environment and infrastructure to specific issues like bad business models and marketing plan, and poor team building and management. But when it comes down to it, women have it worse on the spectrum for the obvious traditional concept of gender, and sexism.
Although women constitute about 50 percent of Nigeria’s population, they are poorly represented in major markets and industries due to social, cultural, political, and economic barriers stacked up against them. Still, Nigerian women are increasingly defying these structured barriers and excelling in industries across the board. And thanks to female-focused social enterprises like She Leads Africa, more women are motivated to write their own narratives by seizing and creating opportunities in business and entrepreneurship.
For four days in the city of Lagos last week, brilliant young women gathered at the Heritage Place, Ikoyi, in a professional boot camp for female entrepreneurs – SheHive Lagos. SheHive Lagos was part of a tour organised by a Nigerian-based social enterprise, She Leads Africa (SLA), to tutor and help women overcome the challenges of being a female entrepreneur and get real results in their careers.
The event was a total ‘entrepreneurship package’ featuring individualised workshop sessions, one-on-one interactions with industry mentors, networking, shopping events, and fun activities like SLA’s signature ‘motherland mogul rap battles’ which often kicked off daily sessions. The SLA team led by co-founders, Afua Osei and Yasmin Belo-Osagie, invited some of Nigeria’s finest female entrepreneurs to discuss key business issues and share insights from their wealth of knowledge and experience.
In general, the female population in Nigeria is becoming increasingly progressive, and as this happens the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is seeing an influx of young ambitious female entrepreneurs and career driven women. Women refusing to stay relegated to the background, or wait on a man to pay the bills. There is a rising generation of females with the grit to own successful profitable businesses worth billions, these were the calibre of women that showed up at SheHive Lagos.
Day one and two of SheHive Lagos featured intensive workshops with SLA co-founder, Afua Osei. During these sessions, Afua taught and engaged a group of SheHivers in practical sessions on the subjects of business development, marketing, and investor readiness. “If you want any form of external support, first and foremost, know thyself. We work with a lot of entrepreneurs and when you ask them critical questions about their businesses, they don’t have the answers. And before you expect anybody to invest in you, support you, or work with you, you have to really know what you can and cannot do,” Afua advised.
The third day of SheHive began with a 30-minute session on building winning partnerships with Afua. Followed by an interactive session on balancing work and life as a female entrepreneur with Arese Ugwu, founder of Smart Money Africa, Nimi Akinkugbe, founder & CEO of Bestman Games and Nibi Lawson, founder of The Kinky Apothecary. It was a light-hearted yet intense session of honest revelations and advice from this group of phenomenal women.
“I have never had total balance in my life. Some things have to take the back seat and that’s totally okay. Don’t knock yourself out on everything,” Nimi advised. Arese and Nibi gave similar advice, “… you can’t have it all put together all the time and that’s fine. You should be able to focus on your career and not feel guilty….” “Find out how things work with you. Compartmentalise them. Do things at the time you’re able to and when at your best.”
For most of the attendees, hearing such candid advice from women who are winning in the entrepreneurial space was a relief, something different from the constant rhetoric of having a well-rounded or “balanced” life as a career-driven or business woman. The trio also gave advice on how to cope with personal responsibilities; SheHivers were asked to plan, prioritise, engage support systems (friends and family), and to learn to say “No” when necessary. “If you decide to do or pay attention to everything you may not get any work done,” the ‘smart money’ mogul said.
Shortly after the “Balancing Act” session, it was time for the few invited men to contribute their quota to the conversation. Idorenyen Enang, CEO of Corporate Shepherds, and sales guru, Ibukun Onitiju, took turns to educate participants on how to drive marketing campaigns, and on ways to optimise sales and develop winning sales funnels. Onitiju stressed the need for entrepreneurs to specific in defining who their ideal customer is, “In creating your customer avatar, you have to be specific. Think very very narrow,” he said.
Whether it’s growing your business as a budding entrepreneur or being a career woman in a male-dominated industry, the SLA team had it covered. At the finale of SheHive Lagos on Sunday, October 9, 2016, Adepeju Adebajo, the CEO of Lafarge Cement Africa shared her experience of being a boss in a non-traditional industry. She implored women to break stereotypes, challenge the status quo, and journey on a path less travelled like she has as a woman in a male-dominated industry. “There’s nothing like being too ambitious,” she told SheHivers in attendance.
Following that, Bunmi Lawson, the managing director and CEO of Accion Microfinance Bank, shared nuggets on how to propel growth in business, “Build a great team by taking the time to hire the right people for the job. Leverage networks; don’t be afraid to ask. Identify both controlled and uncontrolled growth,” Lawson advised.
Female-focused socio enterprises like She Leads Africa, and female oriented programmes such as SheHive are critical to the advancement of the socio-economic status of women in our climate. They have contributed, and are responsible for the growing success of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Africa. Statistics show that women own 30 percent of registered entrepreneurial businesses in Nigeria, and according to a 2015 survey by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Nigeria has the highest percent (41 percent) of female entrepreneurs in the world. Thanks to empowerment programmes like SheHive, the socioeconomic contributions of women in Nigeria are no longer debatable as more and more women are driven to achieve their dreams.
