Despite the challenges confronting female entrepreneurs in Africa, they have succeeded in breaking new grounds on entrepreneurship in the Continent. Recently, the Women of West Africa (WOWe) Entrepreneurship had a press conference to intimate the public on the challenges and prospects of female entrepreneurs as WOWe makes preparation for the 2014 edition of the conference. Senior Reporter Anthonia Soyingbe who was at the briefing reports on the issues raised by some of these female entrepreneurs.
“I can never worship in a church presided over by a woman neither can I vote for a woman. How will a woman be my head? Women are just who they are, they are homemakers and not nation builders. They should stay back at home and attend to their children. We have many criminals in our society because women want to compete with men in all fields and so they abandon their children. It is still the sole responsibility of women to impact good morals into their children while men are meant to assist. It was not so in the past. Women want to wear caps that don’t fit them all in the name of gender equality,” Femi Ajayi a Lagos-based law practitioner said recently while discussing with some of his friends.
Women in African are believed to be the bedrock of Africa’s economy. Yet they are confronted with many challenges in entrepreneurship. Perhaps the most noticeable is the cultural value or tradition of the African society. This requires that the man/husband be the breadwinner. Therefore women who show their entrepreneurship prowess are presumed as wanting to take over the leadership role of men. Indeed in a family where the husband/father is an entrepreneur the male children are usually groomed to run the family business even after the death of the father leaving out the female children. Women entrepreneurs also face societal discrimination as most people still live with the mentality that men better handle certain business or tasks. The truth is that many including women often assume women are generally incompetent in certain fields of life. People would rather deal with a businessman than a woman. Often times, women entrepreneurs usually find themselves torn between commitment to the family and business.
It is against this background that the Managing Director WOWe, Tori Abiola noted that women think small while some are not financially savvy like their male counterparts. “Female entrepreneurs have lots of challenges which include; unconducive environment, lots of women also think small. Sometimes some of us are scared and intimidated by men in business,”
For Abiola “As the biggest economic drivers on the continent, women entrepreneurs are taking the reins and spearheading industries in small, medium and large businesses. At this year’s event you will gain innovative ideas and tips to expand your business and seed concepts by discussing the essential elements to “turn your passion into profit” and provide you with a roadmap to success to surpass today’s challenges and become a leading entrepreneur of tomorrow. As women continue to play the most signi?cant role in economic development they need their own economic independence and the skills to grow their businesses to be sustainable and result in growth opportunities. She however appealed to relevant government agencies to promote policies that will change lives of women.
She opined that the 2013 WOWe conference was positive, ful?lling and encouraging. For her women entrepreneurs are still facing challenges that need to be addressed with the right information, proactive development and through networks of determined business leaders and mentors.
Thus according to Abiola, the two-day conference which will hold between 26 to 27 June, at Oriental Hotel, Lagos with the theme “Turing Passion to Profit” will afford participants not only to provide a high level networking platform that connects the most influential women entrepreneurs to exchange and dialogue on issues to entrepreneurship and leadership, it will also access new trends accelerating women across industries.
Managing Director, Chapel Hill Denham, Ononuju Irukwu while identifying some of the many challenges women encounter in business urged women not to despise the day of small beginning. She also solicited for patronage for women so as keep their business “flying”, noting that” Women entrepreneurs generally find it difficult to raise capital or obtain a bank loan because investors and bankers would rather risk their venture capital with male entrepreneurs than females. They tell them to bring collaterals and don’t forget that in some parts of Nigeria, women are not entitled to inheritance, so tell me where and how will a woman get collateral to access loan to start off or expand her business?” “
No doubt if given the same opportunity as men, women entrepreneurs will do better than their male counterparts as gender, age, race, and religion or personal beliefs are not criteria for success. The obvious fact however still remains that empowering a woman would catalyst the economy of any Nation, Nigeria inclusive.
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