Sunday, October 9, 2016
On the backdrop of a
high entrepreneurial rating of Nigerian women, a leading female entrepreneur in
Nigeria, Mrs. Adenike Ogunlesi, has outlined some of the challenges of Nigerian
female entrepreneurs and also offered solutions to the challenges.
Ogunlesi, who is the
founder of Nigeria's leading children wears brand, Ruff n Tumble, listed the
challenges including cultural values & societal discrimination, inadequate
support network ( lack of available advisers and mentors), balancing business
and family life, limited experience/training in entrepreneurship development,
and coping with a fear of failure.
Speaking at the just
concluded second African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF),
Ogunlesi also included in the long list limited access to capital/ Funding,
inadequate access to market information, unskilled labour force, high cost of
living and doing business, as well as poor government support for female
entrepreneurs.
These challenges,
according to her, were coming against the recent report by the 'No Ceilings'
initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which
indicated that a woman in Nigeria is four times as likely to be an entrepreneur
than a woman in the U.S.A.
She also stated that
''study shows 41% of women are entrepreneurs in Nigeria while 42% of these
women are shown to have received loans from family and friends to start their
businesses. While only 2% have received from financial institutions''.
To overcoming the
challenges, she listed several other strategies which include: clarity of
purpose, the use of the power of choice, effort, discipline, resilience,
business structure, commitment to life-long learning by the female
entrepreneurs.
She also commented on
the role of the government and business community in supporting
entrepreneurship in Nigeria which according to her, includes visionary and
transparent governments, access to finance and financial incentives, provision
of basic infrastructure (Roads, Power etc.).
Others include adequate
legal and regulatory framework, commitment to building domestic expertise and
knowledge, removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks with government agencies (such
as NAFDAC, SON etc), ease of doing business in the areas of permits, multiple
taxation.
SOURCE: VANGUARD