A United Kingdom-based NGO, Cherie Blair Foundation in conjunction with Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) has trained 360 Abia women entrepreneurs in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the state.
The women drawn from the 17 Local Councils of the state were trained on wholesale and retail business management, small scale manufacturing, hospitality and social services.
The training also covered use of ICT facilities to access critical information necessary in the building and sustenance of their businesses.
A guest speaker at the occasion, Emelike Obgonnaya, in a paper entitled ‘Business Planning, a Sine Qua Non for Successful Entrepreneur’, described continuous and proper planning as a livewire to the growth and sustenance of businesses, adding that about 80% of businesses in Nigeria failed to thrive because their owners could not do proper planning before embarking on such business ventures.
Another guest speaker, Ejem Agwu of the department of Banking and Finance, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, identified funding as a major challenge facing entrepreneurs in developing nations and urged the National Assembly to pass a bill that will mandate financial institutions to assist entrepreneurs in the development of their businesses.
Programme Manager of the Foundation, Mr. Ezekiel Nworie, said that the objective of the programme with the theme, ‘ShEntrepreneur’ was to provide women entrepreneurs in Nigeria with broad based training to help them strengthen their businesses, become more financially independent and self-reliant.
“The CBFW focuses on helping women entrepreneurs in developing countries, like Nigeria, build and expand their businesses. In so doing, they improve their families and communities.”
Nworie said that the foundation would provide capacity training platform for the women and also, serve as guarantor to a number of Abia women entrepreneurs who may wish to secure loans from financial institutions.
“It is our responsibility to ensure they have the adequate resources and knowledge they need to sustain their businesses. YTF improves the success of Nigerian women entrepreneurs through hands-on skills training and capacity building, advisory services and entrepreneurial development programmes.
“We shall also serve as guarantor to any of them that would want to have access to loans from any financial institutions of their choice as long as those loans are meant for their businesses,” he said.
He said that the training workshop which commenced in 2012 will run through March 2014, adding that over 2000 women entrepreneurs across the five selected states in Nigeria (Imo, Abia, Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states) were expected to train other women in their respective local councils and also, contribute to the economic development of their state and that the country at large.
A woman entrepreneur, Mrs. Ngozi Okpala, who served as a facilitator at the event, charged the womenfolk to believe in themselves, have self integrity and adopt image building as a way to break even in a male dominated market.
