The path to recovery for women owned businesses

SME.NG conducted a national survey in partnership with the Federal Ministry for Women’s Affairs and the Nigerian Association for Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture (NACCIMA) to assess the impact of the pandemic on women-owned businesses. The result of the survey revealed several areas that contributed to the vulnerability of women’s businesses in Nigeria to economic shocks. Most SMEs in Nigeria are run by women and given their limited knowledge and experience on how to conduct businesses online, women led businesses were the most adversely affected by the pandemic. It revealed that the stimulus packages that were introduced during the early days of the lockdown did not take into consideration the unique challenges women owned businesses face and as such were not designed to support women’s diverse businesses.

The survey revealed that 61% of women entrepreneurs had limited awareness of the various government and private sector interventions that were available to support businesses. Given that majority of these women-led SMEs remain excluded from the digital ecosystem as a result of limited access to broadband and nonavailability of adequate devices and the fact that internet has become the major platform that disseminates information about the available interventions, this is not farfetched.

The impact of the internet on the lives and businesses of entrepreneurs around the world cannot be overestimated, the saying that the world has become a global village is most true now especially after the pandemic but access to and the use of these technologies has not been equitable. Various research continues to show that women and girls are the most disadvantaged by the cultural, economic, and social barriers that restrict their access to technology and the gains they offer.

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In some parts of Nigeria, a large number of women are unable to access the internet due to deeply ingrained gender, cultural and social norms. While research shows that the males in the household are often the ones who control access to technology, it further reveals that even the women have internalized these norms and restrictive behavior. This continues to present barriers to their acceptance and use of the internet and technology in general.
The road to recovery for women led SMEs in Nigeria should involve digitalization, market access, and cheap and patient capital – these three factors particularly access to this technology and its related infrastructure is critical to the recovery of businesses from the pandemic.

As the world continues to gravitate towards a digital era of business, there needs to be an accompanying plan for the digitization of women owned businesses in Nigeria. Small businesses continue to be strong drivers of employment, therefore enabling their digitization will bring more women into the economic mainstream and further promote equity in Nigeria’s digital economy. Plugging into the digital opportunities for businesses will further create better opportunities for the future.

Solutions for women entrepreneurs should include systems that empower them to be sustainable without necessarily extracting from outside their locations and so we must continue to encourage home grown solutions for local problems. Training majority of women business owners around Nigeria to accept and use technology and its accompanying infrastructure may be an uphill task but women owned businesses can leverage platforms to promote their businesses if they have access to solutions that can enable their businesses to thrive. Where institutional voids exist, connecting women entrepreneurs to technology-based solutions that empower them is the solution. Within the entrepreneurship ecosystem, innovation in business models especially during unprecedented times like we are in now, where consumer behavior continues to evolve and the accompanying acceleration of change during moments of crisis must be encouraged.

The overall wellbeing of Nigerian women and their businesses is an important indicator of Nigeria’s successful recovery from the negative effects of the pandemic. The Digital Economy Diagnostic Report survey by the World Bank Group showed that in 2018 the e-commerce spending in Nigeria was estimated at USD 12 billion and was projected to increase to USD 75 billion in revenues by 2025. This diagnostic argues that accelerating access to digital technologies spurs innovation, efficiency, and productivity, and as a result brings about choice and opportunities for greater growth and inclusion. If more women entrepreneurs are mainstreamed into the digital ecosystem, there is a higher chance for the digital economy revenue of Nigeria to increase.

To overcome the challenges of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, in addition to adequate trainings and access to finance, the use of E-commerce should be promoted as E-commerce is vital in providing new horizons to entrepreneurs in developing economies. With limited resources available to women owned businesses, these women may be unable to host their own personal e-commerce websites and so it is extremely important that in this road to recovery for women owned businesses, a solution that bridges this gap is designed. This solution should also provide a platform through which these women entrepreneurs can easily begin to connect and network with each other, form new partnerships and expand the reach of their businesses beyond their locations.