This month, seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria gathered on International Women’s Day to teach and learn from one another about advancing their businesses. Acknowledging the nation’s 24-percent unemployment rate and other societal obstacles, many insist that the only thing standing in between women and entrepreneurship is themselves. The government has also been implementing various programs to encourage entrepreneurship, with the winners of a national youth entrepreneur competition to be announced today.
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by Temitayo Olofinlua, Reporter, Tuesday - March 20, 2012
“I can say that the good far outweighs the bad experiences,” she says. “As I look back, I give thanks to God, and I will not mind doing it all over again.”
But more than doing it over again herself, she wants to share her experience with other women. This was the aim of the International Women’s Day event hosted by The Knox Centre Focus on Women, the women’s outreach arm of Tobi Lawal’s event venue business.
Tobi Lawal says that, despite the challenges of entrepreneurship, it offers more benefits than paid employment.
“Statistics show that three out of every four millionaires own their businesses,” she says. “Most of those in paid employment live from paycheck to paycheck, except if they do other businesses. Then when they retire, they can hardly keep up with their old lifestyle.”
She says that being an entrepreneur has additional benefits for women too.
“For women, it also affords us more time to spend with our children and be involved in their upbringing,” she says. “I say emphatically that entrepreneurship is the way to go to have a good life and leave a good inheritance for your offspring.”
The theme for last week’s event was, "Be outraged, be inspired, be informed, be active." Tobi Lawal clarifies that the first clause carries a positive connotation, calling on women to change the state of things they are not pleased with.
"When we use the word ‘outrage,’ we are not encouraging violence,” she says. “We mean we should be angry enough about our present situation to want to get out of it and work our way into [an] improved situation."
She says the event aimed to foster a dialogue among veteran and aspiring entrepreneurs.
“Women were encouraged to come out with their stories, their skills, their arts and crafts and their products to network, rub minds, exchange ideas, encourage and inspire one another,” she says.
Seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria gathered on International Women’s Day this month to teach and learn from one another about advancing their businesses. While some cite societal obstacles, others insist that the only thing standing in between women and entrepreneurship is themselves. The event was free in order to encourage participation and collaboration, and organizers plan to hold future programs to continue to educate women about how to be successful entrepreneurs.
More than 200 people attended the event on International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8. Thirty vendors also received space at no charge to display their wares to the audience.
Unemployment in Nigeria rose from about 21 percent to 24 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the 2011 Annual Socio-Economic Report of the National Bureau of Statistics. The number of new entrants into the active labor force declined from 2009 to 2010, after increasingly steadily since 2007. But it partially rebounded from 2010 to 2011.
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