NFNV empowers women with sustainable skills, financial inclusion

The Nigeria chapter of New Faces, New Voices (NFNV-Nigeria) has, over the years, bridged the barriers preventing Nigerian women from attaining their full potential and life sustenance. NFNV, a pan-African women-in-finance network under the Graça Machel Trust (GMT), focuses on promoting changes in the finance, entrepreneurship, digital skills, and other sectors by ensuring Africa benefits from women’s economic potential. NFNV-Nigeria believes in empowering women to contribute to a crucial shift in the business and financial landscape across the continent.

Recently, the group held a National Roundtable on Women Leadership and Financial Inclusion (WLFI-NRT2), focused on bridging Nigeria’s wealth-gender gap and boosting women’s roles and influence in the country’s financial industry. The roundtable, themed “Closing the Wealth Gender Gap: Strategies for Achieving Economic Inclusion,” examined the financial hurdles to cross in order to close the wealth-gender gap in Nigeria and evaluated policies and initiatives necessary for closing the wealth-gender gap in the country.

The roundtable followed its first national roundtable in March 2022, themed: “Building an Inclusive Financial Ecosystem for Women-Led Businesses in Nigeria—Post-Covid-19.” The maiden roundtable evaluated the level of inclusiveness of the Nigerian government’s financial policies and interventions aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic on women-owned businesses and ensuring gender-inclusive post-Covid-19 recovery efforts.

In the recent programme, WLFI-NRT2 assessed policies and programmes aimed at closing the wealth-gender gap in Nigeria, examined the socio-economic ecosystem necessary to foster gender-sensitive public and private policies for achieving SDGs 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) in Nigeria, and proposed actions to ensure functional and implementable strategies for economic inclusion in Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Country Director of NFNV-Nigeria, Mrs. Aishatu Debola Aminu, noted that about 133 million Nigerians were trapped in multidimensional poverty, adding that these deepening economic inequalities had further widened the country’s wealth-gender gap. She stressed that NFNV Nigeria is playing a pivotal role in championing women’s financial inclusion.

According to her, closing Nigeria’s wealth-gender gap is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity for the nation’s economic growth and development. Mrs. Aminu lauded the Central Bank of Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) among other financial inclusion policies.

“These efforts have yielded progress, with more than half of Nigerian adults now accessing formal financial services, which is indeed a positive step forward. However, there is much work to be done, as we must build on these achievements and explore innovative strategies to ensure that women, in particular, are adequately included in the economic landscape.

“I want to express my gratitude to all participants for your commitment to this vital cause. Your expertise and insights will be invaluable in shaping the future of economic inclusion in Nigeria. Let us approach this day with an open mind and a shared determination to make a difference. Together, we can chart a course towards a more equitable and prosperous Nigeria,” she told the delegates.

Speaking at the event, GMT’s Founder, Mrs. Graça Machel, who was represented by GMT’s Director of Programmes, Ms. Shiphra Chisha, described as regrettable the fact that women, globally, have been marginalised and left behind in various aspects of economic and social development.

Machel said going forward, women must be engaged as active decision-makers in correcting the mistakes of the past and building a more equitable and sustainable future where no one is left behind.

She said: “The choice before us as a continent is clear: we either leave women, who are half of our army, to perpetuate these injustices, or we prioritise gender-responsive policies and inclusive adaptation strategies in our energy transition and economic inclusion efforts.

“Let us ensure that the benefits of economic inclusion are shared by all, regardless of gender, and ensure that women play a central role in shaping our pathway moving forward. Not doing this is only inviting an extended period of growth drought, economic slowdown, social imbalances, and adverse effects that will continue to affect our children, youth, and men in the long run.”

The GMT chief described closing the gender wealth gap as a matter of social justice, adding that closing the gap in Nigeria would be an economic game changer, one that would result in higher growth productivity and greater economic stability. To achieve full gender parity in Africa, she said countries must address structural barriers that discriminate against women and girls in the areas of access to education, employment, finance as well as financial services.

In her goodwill message, NFNV-Nigeria’s Grand Patron, Dr. Amina Namadi Sambo, said her work with NFNV Nigeria improves the lives of Nigerian women. She described the roundtable as timely, adding that the 2023 Global Gender Gap Report, which showed overall progress of 0.3 percent in efforts to achieve gender parity compared to the previous year, was still worthy of recognition.

She noted that even though the improvement seemed small, it was still progress in the right direction.

According to her, these partnerships enable us to empower women entrepreneurs through events like this national roundtable and financial inclusion programs, which not only support their economic advancement but also contribute to overall economic growth and social development.

In her presentation titled “Bridging the Wealth Gap through Gender Smart Economics,” former Vice-President/Secretary-General at the African Development Bank (AfDB) and NFNV-Nigeria Trustee, Ms. Cecilia Akintomide, said women globally still earn 20 percent less than men for the same work, noting that Namibia and Rwanda were the only African countries among the top 10 globally in terms of efforts to close the gender gap.

“Nigeria has a pronounced gender-wealth inequality, which can be attributed to financial illiteracy, a lack of access to paid work, reduced access to education, a lack of adequate property ownership as a result of culture and tradition, and life events. Our current economic policies have created a challenging work environment for women. Closing the gender-wealth gap may be like a bitter pill, but it is a key step to economic recovery,” she said.

For Nigeria to close the existing wealth-gender gap, Ms. Akintomide said institutions must be deliberate and intentional about bridging the gap by committing to gender-based preferences that favour women in procurement.

“We can use that as a means to advocate for the government. If, for instance, the government allocates 30 percent of procurement to women, it will, by a large margin, close the gender gap,” she added.

Besides the earlier engagement, NFNV held hybrid workshops to draw experts and stakeholders in finance and business. They delved into diverse financing opportunities for women entrepreneurs across formal and informal sectors to take advantage of, to restart and boost their enterprises as the country eases out of the post-Covid-19 period. This was in a bid to economically empower them and amplify women’s contribution to Nigeria’s economic growth.

At the workshop, NFNV-Nigeria Country Director Ms. Aminu said women entrepreneurs constitute up to 50 percent of MSMEs’ ownership in Nigeria, which means they contribute a large quota to employment, economic growth, and foreign exchange earnings in the country.

She said the WLFI workshop series was aimed at ensuring women’s financial inclusion not only in Nigeria but across Africa, as similar workshops were being held across the continent.

The central message of the workshop held via webinar targeted the sustainability and growth of women-owned MSMEs in Nigeria, which largely depends on their ability to adapt, innovate, and collaborate in the face of economic uncertainties. The strategies and insights shared during the event underscored the importance of building a strong risk management culture, leveraging digital tools, and forming strategic partnerships to navigate the challenges of a Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) economy.

In her contribution, Ms. Olushola Afolalu, Head of Solutions Delivery at Ecobank, emphasised the need for adaptive leadership and strategic planning, adding that in the VUCA world, businesses must be flexible and responsive to changing circumstances while maintaining a clear vision for the future.

Similarly, Chair of NET Microfinance Bank, Mr. Abdulrazak Idiaro, highlighted several key strategies, including the diversification of supply chains and revenue streams, continuous learning and development, and the strengthening of organisational structures. He also underscored the importance of investing in technology and leveraging digital tools to enhance business operations.

In the same vein, Ms. Afolake Oladitan, Coordinator of Women in Business, Trade, and Export (WIBTE) at NFNV Nigeria, highlighted the importance of creating an environment where women-led enterprises can thrive, even amidst global economic challenges. Ms. Oladitan said despite the dual shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdowns, women entrepreneurs in Nigeria have shown resilience and determination in navigating the VUCA economy.

In her goodwill message, Kano State Commissioner for the Ministry of Women, Children, and Disabled, Aisha Lawan, commended NFNV-Nigeria for its dedication to creating more opportunities for women to thrive in the financial world.

She emphasised the necessity of a collective effort to break down the sociocultural barriers hindering women’s access to finance and leadership opportunities, which is crucial for building an equitable society.

On the role of social media in promoting e-commerce among women-owned MSMEs, Ruqayyah Muhammad of the Network for Awareness on Socio-economic Rights and Sustainable Development (NASSDev), said that thanks to their billions of users, social media platforms have become powerful avenues for businesses to market and sell their products online.

She said that although women-owned MSMEs often face hurdles such as access to financing and cultural barriers, social media have now opened unrivalled opportunities for them.

Ms. Muhammad said getting the most value out of social media requires a balance between the networks that your audience uses and the most popular networks.

“Set aside time to respond to user comments, questions, and reviews, post photos and videos to generate even higher engagement rates. Entrepreneurs need to boost or promote posts to increase engagement, views, and conversions. Partnerships with social media influencers to reach the target audience at a cost-effective rate are required to achieve enhanced results,” she added.