Encomium
Two hundred Nigerian female entrepreneurs have been selected to pitch their sustainable business ideas to receive N2 million grants each, in the ongoing Y’ellopreneur initiative by MTN Foundation.
The Y’ellopreneur program which is in its first phase kicked off with the training of 500 female business owners in partnership with the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC). Following the successful completion of the training program, 200 Y’ellopreneurs have been selected to participate in the pitch event starting on Thursday, February 16, 2023.
According to a recent report by PWC Nigeria, women account for 41% of the ownership of micro-businesses in Nigeria, with 23 million female entrepreneurs operating within this segment. Despite the numbers, a lot of female entrepreneur struggle to scale their businesses, due to a lack of access to start-up capital or capital for expansion and inadequate business training which creates a skills gap.
The Y’ellopreneur program which is in its first phase is designed to build the entrepreneurial skills of 500 women, through capacity-building sessions and provide equipment loans of up to N2 million naira each to 150 entrepreneurs with recommended bankable businesses.
The goal of the Y’ellopreneur initiative is to equip female business entrepreneurs with business skills and funds to impact growth of their businesses and scale their businesses to become sustainable at the same time providing job opportunities.
