Encouragement has been extended to women in Nigeria to take on an active and leading role in fostering business growth and overall development. Emphasis was also placed on the importance for women to pursue leadership roles in their communities and the corporate world, enabling them to influence policies and programs that support sustainable development.
This counsel came from Ms. Latanya Mapp Frett, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Fund for Women (GFW), who served as the Special Guest Speaker at the 4th edition of the Women Financing Women (WFW) Group meeting held in Lagos on Thursday, June 25, 2020. This gathering was hosted by First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and SME.NG, Nigeria’s SME Impact Investment Platform.
The event, attended by 30 registered participants, provided a platform for women entrepreneurs to come together and share their experiences of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their businesses. The WFW Group, established by SME.NG in 2019, brings together women-led funds, investors, and financial institutions with diverse portfolios focusing on supporting women in securing finance for their businesses in Nigeria. SME.NG, on the other hand, is an impact investment platform that invests in Nigerian Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to achieve measurable environmental, social, and financial returns.
Ms. Frett highlighted that the limited presence of women in key leadership positions has restrained women-owned businesses, including Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), from securing the necessary support for their success.
She expressed, “The hindrance of women from reaching top leadership positions acts as a limitation to our goals. This affects our ability to influence the achievement of international sustainability targets in ways that would positively impact the well-being of women in business and other socio-economic activities.”
Ms. Frett shared that the Global Fund for Women has been supporting women in various ways for the past 35 years, including funding over 5,000 women-owned businesses worldwide since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund also created a feminist funding model, collaborating with partners to enable women to finance each other’s businesses through grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for a period of 3 years.
Furthermore, she revealed that the fund is in partnership with the United Nations and other multilateral organizations to support girls’ education following the pandemic, as well as initiating a Crisis Fund for pandemic relief efforts. Ms. Frett urged financial institutions to “focus on the overall social impact beyond funding businesses by identifying those with limited resources that they can continue to support, having a multiplier effect in this critical period.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Mrs. Bukola Smith, the Executive Director of Business Development at FCMB, stated that FCMB has been providing support to businesses, particularly those owned by women, for several years. The bank has established a women in business proposition called SheVentures to cater to the diverse needs of women entrepreneurs.
“SheVentures is a brand within FCMB’s Women in Business proposition, offering financial and business support to women-owned businesses, enabling them to unlock their potential, scale up, and build sustainable businesses with significant economic impact,” she explained.
Mrs. Smith, a prominent member of WFW, outlined that the FCMB SheVentures initiative is centered on 4 pillars: Access to capital, covering zero-interest loans granted to over 160 Women SMEs since last year, Gender Intervention Funds, and Equity funding through collaboration with SME.NG to provide access to women investors; Access to knowledge, ensuring women entrepreneurs receive proper training and robust mentorship programs; Access to network; and Access to the market.
She reaffirmed FCMB’s commitment to sustaining its support for women entrepreneurs, stating, “Through the profitable and beneficial business models we have developed for women entrepreneurs, we have gone a step further by ensuring that SMEs benefiting from our support in turn contribute to the positive social state of their communities. We look forward to learning more about how to support female entrepreneurs amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Thelma Ekiyor, the Managing Partner for SME.NG, informed that, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the organization conducted a “National Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Women-owned Businesses”. The survey involved 1,300 women entrepreneurs across 30 states, aimed at identifying their challenges and needs. She proposed that a fund be established at the Federal Ministry for Women’s Affairs to aid women entrepreneurs in their recovery from the pandemic.
Ms. Ekiyor also mentioned that SME.NG is working with FCMB and GroFin, an SME development financier, to provide finance to women-owned businesses who graduate from their Accelerator “She Works Here” program.
Several women entrepreneurs at the meeting shared testimonials about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses, noting an uptick in the number of jobs created, indicating sustainable growth in their respective businesses.
The participants recommended that women entrepreneurs should leverage the benefits of e-commerce and other forms of business digitization.
For more information about FCMB, please visit www.fcmb.com.