FG Urged to Support Women-led Businesses to Achieve $1trn Economy
Emma Okonji
The Director, Enterprise Sales, FairMoney Business, Gloria Onosode, has called on the federal government to support the transition of women-led businesses from mere passive observers to primary growth drivers at the heart of the economy, in order to achieve her ambitious target of $1 trillion economy by 2030.
Citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which explained that the increased ownership rate of MSMEs by women represented a significant contribution to economic growth and job creation, Onosode said digital empowerment for these enterprises must move from being a social responsibility or gender support initiative to contribute to a broader economic development.
Onosode who said this in a statement, insisted that to reach the $1 trillion GDP milestone, women-led businesses must be positioned to operate at a macroeconomic scale.
“This requires moving beyond subsistence trading and into the digital value chain. For instance, a fashion designer in Aba through digital positioning can access broader markets and commercial networks and thereby facilitate better record-keeping and data-driven decision-making, supporting improved financial record keeping, which may be considered in credit assessments by financial institutions,” Onosode said.
According to her, FairMoney Microfinance Bank (MFB), contributes to the digital transitioning of small businesses in Nigeria, by providing tools specifically designed for the realities of the Nigerian entrepreneur.
She explained that Nigerian women were among the most entrepreneurial globally, consistently defying structural barriers to build enterprises from the ground up.
Also citing the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), which said Nigeria has approximately 39.6 million nano, micro, small, and medium enterprises, Onosode said this remained a significant jump from previous years, which hovered around 40–43 per cent, largely due to the surge in ‘nano’ and ‘micro’ home-based businesses.
