Women tasked on entrepreneurship

With Nigeria’s rate of unemployment at 43.3 per cent, women have been urged to further sharpen their entrepreneurial skills in order to reduce the rate of poverty in the country.
 
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, women constitute over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population. While a recent report by the World Bank said Nigeria’s population has been increasing exponentially, with an estimated figure of 300 million by the year 2050.
 
Speaking at the third edition of the Women In Leadership and Career Empowerment Programme (WILCEP) Africa, Managing Director of Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Mr. Tony Okpanachi, represented by the Business Development and Relationship Manager, Maryesther Ezeadi, emphasised said with Nigeria’s rapid population growth and the current rate of unemployment, over 90 million of its people would be unemployed by 2050.
 
“Nigeria women should see the numerous challenges in the country as opportunities to become entrepreneurs by providing solutions. According to the latest SMEDAN survey, there are 41 million MSMEs in Nigeria. If each of these businesses employs four people, it would totally wipe out unemployment in Nigeria. Our population as at the last count was put at 198.5 million by World Bank. So, it is the most simplistic way of showing the power of entrepreneurship in generating employment,” he said.
 
Women were also advised to persevere during challenging times in business, as the challenges faced in business provide an experience that should serve as a guide to subsequently help sustain the business. While building their business, women were also counseled to prioritise their health and wellbeing.

Commendably, statistics have shown that women benefited immensely from the DBN loan. At the end of 2018, women entrepreneurs accounted for 73 per cent of the end-borrowers.