Get Guardian on GoogleNEXIM offers women entrepreneurs 9% loans to expand
Investors have been urged to verify investment opportunities and beware of promises of unusually high returns, following losses of more than N300 billion to Ponzi schemes in Nigeria in recent years, according to a 2025 report by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The warning came at the 2026 FinTribe Finance Fair in Lagos, where stakeholders called for greater financial knowledge, discipline and access to opportunities to help women build and protect wealth.
The Chief Executive Officer of NGX Regulation Limited, Olufemi Shobanjo, said financial inclusion should go beyond opening bank accounts or providing access to financial products, as people also needed the knowledge to use those services effectively.
He said the Nigerian capital market offered equities, bonds, exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, but investors needed to understand the risks, potential returns and costs before committing their money.
Founder of FinTribe, Jennifer Awirigwe, said the community had grown into a movement of women across 47 countries, who had collectively invested more than $8 million.
She said the fair aimed to encourage women to make financial decisions, start businesses and invest with confidence.
Awirigwe urged participants to seek information from financial institutions and leave the event with one financial decision to implement.
Explaining this year’s theme, “I CAN”, she said one of the biggest barriers facing women was sometimes the belief that certain opportunities were beyond their reach. She urged them to challenge such beliefs and take up opportunities they had previously considered unattainable.
Actress, producer and director, Omoni Oboli, said women who lacked money to start a business could consider collaboration, noting that they might have experience, knowledge or lived experiences others valued.
She urged entrepreneurs to use social media to make their products and services visible, saying this could help them find partners or potential supporters.
Actress, producer and director, Funke Akindele, said discipline, consistency and reinvestment were important to sustaining a business and building wealth.
She urged women to separate personal spending from business funds, budget their income, pay themselves and save rather than use all their earnings to meet other demands.
MEANWHILE, Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) has said its Women and Youth Export Fund is providing women-owned businesses with loans at a single-digit interest rate of nine per cent per annum, as part of efforts to address financing challenges facing women entrepreneurs and help them expand their businesses.
The Head, Lagos Regional Office, NEXIM Bank, Mrs Daniella Jarikre-Ikazaboh, while speaking at the launch of the ‘Making Trade Work for Women in West Africa’ project held in Lagos at the weekend, said the financing initiative was designed to support women-owned businesses, particularly those seeking to increase their capacity and grow from small operations into larger enterprises.
Making Trade Work for Women (MTWW) is a six-year regional initiative (2024–2030) operating across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. Implemented by the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) and TradeMark Africa (TMA) with funding from Global Affairs Canada, the initiative’s delivery in West Africa is supported by Africa International Trade and Commerce Research (AITCR), as the lead consortium implementing partner.
The representative said the bank was particularly encouraged by businesses that had expanded through its financing support, citing the example of a woman entrepreneur whose financing needs grew from N10 million to N20 million, then N50 million, and had now reached N350 million.
Also speaking, Regional Coordinator for MTWW CECI, Halima Ouattara, said women-owned businesses needed financing, business skills, market information and knowledge of applicable standards to become stronger and more competitive.
She said the project would promote access to innovative financial services through partnerships with banks, financial technology companies and village savings and loans associations.
