Former Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Cooperatives in Edo State, Mrs. Afie Braimoh, yesterday charged women entrepreneurs’ to embrace collaboration as a critical strategy to grow in business in the country.

She spoke at the NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) 2026 summit, entitled: “Rise, lead and transform” in Lagos. The forum featured fire side chats, and panel discussion on how women can leverage digital adoption, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the media to grow their business and ways to become women of influence in the society.

Braimoh said to rise, lead and transform, there was need to empower women to know what is important in business and trending the path to development.

“Women are the bedrock of any economy and we can do so much more, but we’re so underrepresented in the global market, and even locally. Women should be empowered with information, technology, AI. It’s no longer about big companies, it’s about women learning to collaborate. Every woman cannot be doing the same thing. When we come together, and bring our best skills and strengths together, we grow together. We must learn to reach out to another woman so we can all grow together,” she said

She further appealed to the government to elevate women status by creating enabling environment to grow out of the survival mode.

The government intervention, she stressed, can come in the form of grants, funding, industrialisation, and technology.

“Government can create centers where women can bring even beans and then transform it to other value added products because most women cannot afford those technologies to be able to value add. And that’s why the government, you know the government is not there to make money, they are there to support us.

Create those enabling environment to allow women to transform those commodities into value added products,” Braimoh said.

President of NNEW, Mrs. Bolanle Edward, said the theme was chosen to encourage women to stand out, and develop transformative business ideas.

Edward said the network has being engaging with the government about policies, and the need to reduce charges and high taxes on women entrepreneurs.

According to her, NNEW has so far expanded its branches to Abuja, Lagos as the headquarters, Rivers state, Kwara, Ogun and plan to establish in Ibadan and Kaduna. She added that the association is committed to achieve its business sustainability plan designed for the next ten years and partnering with International Labour Organisations, Microsoft and others to train women in business.

The Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mojisola Meranda, said the theme, is not merely a call to action but a statement of possibility and a challenge to every woman, institutions and societies to commit to building a more inclusive and prosperous future.

Meranda said: “Yet, too many women still face barriers to finance, markets, mentorship, leadership opportunities, and the institutional support required to scale their ambitions. Empowering women, therefore, must go beyond celebrating their potential. It must involve creating the conditions for that potential to thrive. As a legislator and a woman, entrusted with leadership in the negotiators of assembly, I recognise that sustainable empowerment requires deliberate action.”