SME Mall WIBC Rewards Women Emtrepreneurs with 3 million

Advances Women’s Empowerment in Business

The SME Mall has reinforced its commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs and strengthening Nigeria’s small and medium-sized business sector with the successful conclusion of its 2026 Women in Business Competition (WIBC), which held on September 12, 2026, at Vogue Event Centre, Federal Medical Center, Savage Street, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

The grand finale brought together six women entrepreneurs who had successfully emerged as finalists after the various stages of the competition, giving them an opportunity to pitch their businesses before an independent panel of judges and compete for ₦3 million in equity-free funding.

At the end of the presentations and deliberations, Oshin Ayokunlemi of Natureffects Limited emerged as the winner and received ₦1.5 million, while Yewande Maborukoje of Sidus Care emerged as first runner-up with ₦1 million.

Eniola Robert of Ennie Wears took third place and received ₦500,000.

The three winners represented different dimensions of Nigeria’s growing women-led business community.

Natureffects Limited operates in the natural drinks and wellness space, Sidus Care provides scar-care products developed with Nigerian skin tones in mind, while Ennie Wears is a fashion business that transforms discarded materials into creative fashion pieces.

The other finalists included Dr. Kofoworola Awoyera of Dharkag Foods, Oreva Elisha of Revon Foods and Tolulope Ogungbemi of The Quiver Tutors, reflecting the diversity of sectors in which Nigerian women are building businesses.

Speaking on the initiative, the Managing Director of The SME Mall, Muyiwa Femi-Pearse, said the competition was created to address one of the realities confronting many small businesses, particularly women-owned enterprises: the difficulty of accessing the capital and support required to move from survival to sustainable growth.

“The WIBC is about more than giving out prize money. It is about creating an opportunity for women to understand their businesses better, present their ideas, receive exposure and access support that can help them take the next step,” Femi-Pearse said.

The SME Mall designed WIBC around business diagnosis, capacity building and pitching, rather than treating funding as an isolated intervention.

Participants were required to complete a Business Health Check and progress through the application, pitch and selection stages before the finalists presented their businesses at the grand finale.

The published judging criteria included financial feasibility, business viability, market opportunity, innovation, pitch quality, social impact, scalability, market strategy, preparedness and team strength.

The event also featured the launch of the SME Mall’s Business Health Checker, a tool designed to help entrepreneurs assess the health of their businesses across critical areas including legal and compliance, finance and accounting, human resources, marketing and branding, business advisory and technology.

The initiative reflects the SME Mall’s broader approach to helping business owners identify weaknesses, strengthen their structures and build enterprises capable of long-term growth.

For many of the women who took the stage, the businesses were born from personal experiences and a desire to solve problems that affect people around them.

From developing products for people dealing with scars on Black skin to supporting children with special educational needs and creating products from discarded materials, the finalists demonstrated that entrepreneurship is often driven by purpose as much as profit.

The grand finale therefore served as more than a prize-giving ceremony. It became a platform for women to tell their stories, connect with other entrepreneurs and business leaders, gain visibility and demonstrate the possibilities that exist when women-owned businesses receive the right combination of funding, knowledge, networks and opportunity.

Femi-Pearse noted that supporting women in business is ultimately about strengthening the wider economy because successful small businesses create jobs, provide essential products and services and contribute to the economic wellbeing of families and communities.

With ₦3 million in equity-free funding distributed among the top three businesses, the 2026 WIBC has provided immediate financial support while also drawing attention to the larger conversation around funding, capacity and opportunity for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

For the SME Mall, the ambition is clear: to help more women build stronger businesses, move beyond survival and create enterprises capable of contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s economic growth.