Organisation Equips Women With Digital Skills To Expand Businesses

More than 200 women in Kaduna state have been given digital skills by the Kaduna-based Charity One Tribe Initiative so they may use digital technologies to develop and grow their enterprises.

The gift was made in honour of the 2023 International Women's Day, the Initiative's Executive Director, Magdaline Musa, stated at the beginning of a two-day seminar in Kaduna on Tuesday (IWD).

The programme, which was provided in collaboration with Low-Income Financial Transformation, was in keeping with the 2023 International Women's Day theme of "Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality," according to Musa (L-IFT).

The Thinkers Children Foundation (TCF), Citizens Digital Education Center (CIDEC), Jenifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), and Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women were some of the additional partners, she said (LANW).

According to her, the programme was created to provide women the digital skills they need to use digital technologies to establish and expand their businesses.

“This is in line with One Tribe Initiative’s believes in creating a safe space for displaced persons and underserved population and the passion to provide solutions to women leveraging technology,” she said.

The objective, she continued, was also to introduce the ladies to online market stalls and financial management tools like the Finbit Application, which is accessible on the Google Play Store.

The Finbit application, according to the executive director, is a "digital financial tool" that may assist entrepreneurs in tracking their earnings, outgoings, assets, loans, and human resources.

She continued by saying that the software would also assist the women in tracking the development or lack thereof of their enterprises and that they could receive weekly, monthly, or yearly financial reports from the app.

She emphasised that men now controlled the digital world, with few women utilising the enormous potential it presents.

She ascribed some of the issues to women's mistaken belief that technology was too complicated.

“We want the women to understand that something as small as their android phones can go a long way in helping them to drive online traffic and achieve business growth and transformation.

“After the training, we will be having follow up sessions with the participants to discuss their growth challenges, experiences.

“Also, one of our partners, L-IFT, is already in talks with financial institutions to see how they can provide soft loans to the women who are using the app in managing their businesses,” she said.

According to Anne Swinderen, Managing Director of L-IFT, the organisation that created the Finbit technology, using the platform will enable women to have a thorough grasp of their company's finances.

Swinderen said that the programme allows the ladies to view a variety of information, including the profitability of their company, the activities that produced the highest hourly wages, and many other details.

“It will help you determine which month you have higher cost and running short of money and which month you have more income.

"All these analyses will help you year on year to prepare.

“Once you have Finbit data for some months, you can start showing them to business partners or to banks.

“The Finbit data helps you show what your business is like, how reliable you are, what your business needs and how you are developing over time.

“This will help you make new partnerships and make it possible for banks to better serve you,” she said.

Also, Joseph Otu, Programme Manager at JEF and one of the event's partners, added that the gesture will encourage women to operate their enterprises more digitally.

“Women are making a lot of profits, but they are not accounting for the profits deliberately.

"Sometimes, they inject part of their earnings to family expenses.

“The Finbit App, therefore, will help them to checkmate their income and expenses better.

“We will be tracking their progress and nurture them on how they will make the best use of the application to grow their businesses,” Otu said.

Rebecca Philip, a participant who owns a catering, spice, and poultry company, commended the training's organisers and called it "eye-opening."

“I am a novice in the use of online application for my business, but the training had expanded my knowledge.

"Now I am equip with the needed skills to use online applications to grow my business,” she said.