Two hundred Nigerian women entrepreneurs have been selected to come up with sustainable business ideas to receive a grant of N2 million each under the Y’ellopreneur initiative run by the MTN Foundation.
The program, which is in its first phase, began with the training of 500 women business owners in partnership with the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) after successfully completing the training program.
According to a recent report by PWC Nigeria, women account for 41 percent of micro business ownership in Nigeria, with 23 million women entrepreneurs operating in this segment. Despite these numbers, many women entrepreneurs struggle to scale their businesses due to lack of access to start-up capital or capital for business expansion and inadequate training, which creates a skills gap.
The Y’ellopreneur programme, which is in its first phase, is designed to build the entrepreneurial skills of these women through capacity building sessions and provide equipment loans of up to N2 million each to 150 entrepreneurs with recommended bankable businesses.
The aim of the initiative is to provide women entrepreneurs with business skills and funds to influence business growth and scale to be sustainable and also provide employment opportunities.