This project will recruit and provide business orientation to 100 women, conduct site visits, provide ongoing business education and introduce the women to ideas around startup funding. At the end of the six months business school, we will screen, train and issue loans of $30 - $50 to the most enterprising women to add to their startup businesses.
In Nigeria, as economic growth has stalled over the past few years, and the level of unemployment, hunger, and poverty in the country has been declared as alarming by both domestic and international sources such as the UNDP. Unemployment has eaten deep into the society, as a result, women, school leavers, undergraduates and even graduates are left idle increasing their susceptibility to sexual and gender based violence and unplanned pregnancy. This diminishes their capacity to become productive.
It will add value to the economic well-being of these women through empowering them on a basic source of income for provision of their daily family needs. We will also use the tried and tested Street Business School curriculum to engage these set with the needed ideas to start up a business from the acquired skill and give them start-up funds. It is important to aid them channel their expenditures towards the growth of the community by encouraging entrepreneurship for sustainability.
With their new vocational and entrepreneurial skills, these women will learn how to identify a problem and implement a solution. With the start up fund provided, they will immediately be able to apply the knowledge gained from the training in starting a business. A cooperative will be set up to help them sustain their business and be there for each other as leaders of their community and Nigeria as a whole.
