Fidelity Bank, a leading financial institution in Nigeria, has collaborated with ImpactHER to support 1,052 female entrepreneurs across the 36 states of Nigeria in addressing the challenges they face in their small and medium-sized businesses.  Through diverse training on digital skills and direct business support, beneficiaries from two cohorts have been able to improve visibility for their businesses and consequently, increase sales.

The training, which commenced in January 2022, has had two cohorts that lasted for four weeks each, covering a myriad of topics such as Digital  marketing, building your brand and selling online, etc. The participants were also assisted in putting their businesses on Google Maps, thus allowing customers and the global market to easily find and transact business with them.

Commenting on the partnership, Osita Ede, Divisional Head, Product Development at Fidelity Bank Plc said, “It has become  imperative that female entrepreneurs in Africa are empowered to  overcome the lack of digital literacy which impedes them from fully  reaping the benefits of the digital transformation underway across  Africa, and the world. We believe providing them this access will help them to thrive in their different businesses.”

According to Efe Ukala, Founder of ImpactHER, “Statistically, women  and girls are 25 per cent less likely to leverage digital technology for  basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to programme  computers and 13 times less likely to file for technology patents. This  therefore highlights the importance of equipping African women with  digital skills that could be leveraged to scale their businesses. Let’s not  forget that data shows that Africa can add 180 billion Dollars to its  GDP by 2025 if we close the e-commerce digital gap.”

This intervention is critical as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for  2019/2020 highlighted that millions of women worldwide have started businesses over the last five years alone: the highest percentage of  these women live in Africa, with approximately 26% of female adults  engaged in entrepreneurial activity yet the World Bank confirms  through data collected in ten African countries that on average,  male-owned companies have six times more capital than female owned enterprises, resulting in monthly profits of female-owned  enterprises that are, on average, 38% lower than male-owned  businesses.

Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged commercial bank operating in Nigeria with over 6.5 million customers serviced across its 250 business offices and digital banking channels. The bank was recently recognized as the Best SME Bank Nigeria 2022 by the Global Banking & Finance Awards. The bank has also won awards for the “Fastest Growing Bank” and “MSME & Entrepreneurship Financing Bank of the Year” at the 2021 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.

The bank boasts of a robust bouquet of products designed to help female-led small businesses run successfully including digital loans and HerFidelity -a proposition comprising exciting features such as capacity development initiatives, access to finance, recognition and networking events, health and wellness programmes, etc, all designed to speak to the yearnings of women.

Clementina Uzogor, the Programs Director at ImpactHER, highlighted  the importance of helping women with skills like this to take their  businesses to the next level. “At ImpactHER, it is our mission to ensure  that we equip these women with tools for their businesses to thrive”,  she explained.

She also appreciated Fidelity Bank for working with them to ensure the  programme was successful and impactful. “It is important to let you  know that this is not the end of this training. We will be deepening our  partnership with Fidelity to train and support 5,000 more women-led  small and medium sized businesses in the country before the year runs  out”, she divulged.

An excited participant from the second cohort, Ms Akinyemi  Oluronke, a fashion designer from Lagos underscored the benefits of  joining the training for her business, “I’ve been able to build an online  presence, people now know my business exists and I get a lot of calls  from people who found my business online. I am very grateful for this  platform and the overall increase in sales I now enjoy.” 

According to Carine Nneka Achokwu, another participant from the  January 2022 cohort and CEO of Carine Bakery, a company that  produces pastries and cakes in Lagos, Nigeria, “I have been able to  increase sales by 40% after using the tools that was provided to me  such as “Google My Business” and people have been calling to order  from me and I’ve also been able to reach more customers. I am  thankful that I can get people to patronize my business just by tapping  my phone based on the knowledge I acquired at this training.” 

ImpactHER is an impact-driven nonprofit organization that empowers  African female entrepreneurs by bridging the gender business  financing gap so as to assist them in realizing their full economic  potential. ImpactHER has since its inception trained, directly supported with investor-readiness and  business scalability skills & tools to over 44, 275 women across 53 countries in Africa.

This partnership also provides follow-up training and support for the  participants and is one of the ways ImpactHER and Fidelity Bank help  these women scale up their offerings.