To support Nigerian female entrepreneurs, thrive both in the local and international scene, the African Women Power (AWP) Network has successfully launched access to market business education programmes.

Through its vendor programme, in collaboration with Shoprite Nigeria and Ebeano Supermarket Canada it is bringing support to Nigerian entrepreneurs. In its third and final cohort for the year, it targets global entrepreneurs.

According to founder, AWP Network, Mary Olushoga, “We are glad to launch this initiative with our retail partners. The vendor programme is one of AWP’s thriving initiatives and we are very excited to keep it going. This year, we have expanded to include entrepreneurs at private and public universities. We look forward to onboarding the next cohort of vendors.

“The programme launched in 2020, in the middle of COVID and the inaugural training received a total of over 2,500 vendor applications, with only 100 vendors accepted. Sixty-one vendors were then certified to complete the programme and received the opportunity to pitch their products to AWP retail partners. In 2021, it doubled its application numbers from over 2,500 to over 5,000 and accepted 140 applicants with only 70 completing the programme; in 2022, 15, 000 applications were received.”