In most African countries, the contending matters of female marginalisation continue to raise concerns and requiring necessary attention to reduce inequality in society. The girl-child and women are usually the victims of deprivation, economic exploitation, political segregation, harmful cultural practices, and domestic violence such as assault, rape, genital mutilation, and forced pregnancy, among others. In the end, what we see are low productivity, discrimination and relegation to the background, the enormous and huge potentials embedded in our females.
It was a thing of joy and indeed great news when an initiative was introduced that is capable of lifting African women out of some of these identified predicaments through the platform of the Future Females empowerment programme. In a statement by the Future Females’ Director, Philippa Dods, the organisation is set to increase the number and the success of female entrepreneurs. To make this possible, it recently partnered with the United Kingdom-Nigeria Tech Hub to support 50 entrepreneurs to grow their tech-based businesses. The business school intends to support female entrepreneurs to improve their tech businesses by increasing the capacity of their enterprises to grow, scale, and become more sustainable.
The Future Females Business School Tech Programme is a 3-month virtual accelerator that equips local female entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial skills and best practices needed to start and grow successful and sustainable businesses through the use of technology, which not only aid the generate wealth for them but should have a positive impact in their community and environment. Already, nearly 200 female entrepreneurs have benefitted with the participants witnessing an 88 percent increase in digital skills development, 95 percent uplift in confidence with an average of 168 percent revenue increase in their businesses, which shows the spread and acceptability of the programme.
In specific terms, the programme is designed for Nigerian female entrepreneurs with an early-stage business, who are ready to up skill and utilise technology to grow their business, gain valuable practical entrepreneurial skills to scale their businesses, and be guided to generate more profit and create impact. The curriculum contains 10 modules that are designed to step entrepreneurs up through the fundamental building blocks in starting and growing a business. Participants would be exposed to how to write an effective business plan, how to find and reach their ideal customers and learn how to use technology to build their online presence and scale. The sessions would also feature guest experts such as serial entrepreneurs, executives and coaches that would cover critical personal development topics such as how to overcome the fear of failure and how to uncover one’s true passion bearing in mind that human talent and abilities should be nurtured and developed.
As obtainable in standard classroom setting, the programme is delivered online and would have a virtual graduation event where on completion, certificates would be awarded and all members invited to attend to network, meet the team, celebrate their achievements and their businesses. The tech hub was established as part of the United Kingdom’s Digital Access Programme (DAP), which is a UK Government Prosperity Fund initiative that aims to develop a stronger Nigerian digital ecosystem through the development of skills, entrepreneurship, and business partnerships. Future Females exist to increase the number and to better support the success of female entrepreneurs, as available records indicate that Future Females had shown immense growth.
Attesting to this feat are diverse stakeholders that have rated the programme high. For instance, Lauren Dallas, the Co-Founder affirms that “We are excited to partner with the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub to extend this programme to the early-stage female entrepreneurs in Nigeria, to support our mission of empowering African female entrepreneurs to build world-class businesses, stand proud and take up space on global digital and physical stages” just as Honey Ogundeyi, Country Director reveals that the programme supports gender-inclusive economic growth with specific focus on “Empowering women with the skills and connections to overcome the existing digital gender gap. We are excited to work with the Future Females Team to bring it to Nigeria to support 50 female entrepreneurs”.
There are a number of points that clearly answer this salient question. To begin with, it would serve as an avenue for successful participants to become job-creators; opens doors of opportunity to increase the number of female entrepreneurs; promotes exposure to the use of modern technology in business; keeps participants fully engaged; makes the possession of additional qualifications feasible; makes possible the writing of good business plans; opens door to meet guest experts such as serial executives and coaches; makes room to discover self by overcoming fears; networking; and bridges the wide gulf between the male and female entrepreneurs, among others. More importantly, the intervention should not end with the imparting of skills and knowledge with the necessary financial back-up. This should be done under an atmosphere where any traces of corruption are kept at bay. It is instructive to note that a number of empowerment programmes in Nigeria fail because the needed follow-up is not done by the organisers to ensure that entrepreneurs are monitored, mentored, and assisted.
