National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has expressed concern over the low participation of women in Nigeria’s digital economy.
The organisation said despite making up 45.5 per cent of the country’s labour force, women’s participation stood at a mere 24 per cent, a figure it said was inadequate for Nigeria’s growth.
Special Assistant to NITDA’s Director-General on Strategy and Innovation, Iklima Musa Salihu, raised the concern at a press conference at the weekend to launch HerStartup, a platform dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs around the globe.
The platform is a product of a partnership between the Khalil Suleiman Halilu Foundation, Tomorrow Foundation, and EHA Impact Ventures.
Speaking on the need for access to funding for young female entrepreneurs for sustainability and scalability, Salihu stressed that women’s unde-rrepresentation in this critical sector has hindered the country’s progress.
She said: “In 2022, WEF estimated that Nigeria’s female population reached 101 million, nearly half of the total population.
“Reportedly, however, women occupy only 39 per cent of the country’s entrepreneurial landscape in 2022, despite being pushed towards entrepreneurial careers due to existing biases in the workplace, workforce and home.
“While Nigerian women make up 45.5 per cent of the country’s labour force, their participation falls below 24 per cent, which is inadequate in an era where digital transformation fuels the basis of our nation’s economy.”
According to her, innovation and entrepreneurship play a crucial role in bolstering digital gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
She, however, noted that in African Tech Startups Funding Report (2023), Nigeria had 124 startups secure funding (30.5 per cent of Africa’s total) at $399 billion of which only 28 (22.6 per cent) had one female co-founder and only 19 of the funded startups (15.3 per cent) had a female CEO.
“Putting these numbers into perspective shows that for every $1 raised by male-led startups in Africa in 2023, female-led startups raised 7.6 cents.
“It is worthy to note that there are so many factors that contribute to the widening of this gap such as socio-cultural norms, lack of female mentors, coaches and female-focused networks, income disparity, limited access to skills development, lack of access to funding, among others,” she added .
Founder of KSH Foundation, Khalil Halilu, said the initiative reflects a shared commitment to empowering female entrepreneurs and fostering their success in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In her remarks, the founder of Tomorrow Foundation, Maggie Gu, stressed that women had unique business qualities such as strong collaborative leadership or emotional intelligence, saying: “We have to make sure that female talents also have access to proper funding and mentoring”
Chief Executive Officer at Eha Impact Ventures, Evelyn Castle, observed that for women entrepreneurs, business difficulties were often compounded by gender norms and family responsibilities.
