American based online social media and social networking company, Facebook, has launched an entrepreneurship program, aimed at training female entrepreneurs in Nigeria, tagged ‘SheMeansBusiness’.
The company’s Public Policy Director for Africa, Ebele Okobi stated that the program was designed to inspire women to start and grow their businesses.
Nigeria will be the first country in Africa where the initiative will be launched, after it had launched in Turkey, United Kingdom, and Mexico.
A study that was conducted on behalf of Facebook by Development Economics, which shows that businesses set up by women in Nigeria, over the next five years, will bring in N19.7 billion into the Nigerian economy, and create 8.9 million jobs.
Sherry Dzinoreva, Policy Programmes Manager, EMEA at Facebook, stresses that “SheMeansBusiness aims to train 50,000 female small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) and create opportunities that would inspire and empower others.”
The goal is to instill in women, a desire to do more through making money and creating jobs, it is therefore very important for women to be connected to people who will provide the motivation necessary to accomplish this. This is how they will bridge the confidence gap.
Also, Co-founder of ‘She Leads Africa’, Afua Osei affirmed that her organisation is partnering with Facebook to train women in SME’ to grow their businesses with the right digital tools and support so that African women would be able to compete on a global level.
SheMeansBusiness will bring together female entrepreneurs in a series of workshops and training sessions across six cities in Nigeria – Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abuja, and Osei.
Source: Crenov8.com