Introducing legal reforms to ensure equal rights of women to ownership, inheritance and financial control; with a view to reinforcing their special skills and advantages and leveraging them for immediate and long-term macro-economic gains, at both local and national levels.
Reprioritizing budgetary outlays and official expenditure models with the specific objective of improving gender equality, through the introduction of special schemes and programmes that effectively encourage women’s involvement in entrepreneurial activities.
Enforcing equitable gender participation through the development of focused entrepreneurial activity for women that takes their socio-cultural, legal and economic constraints into account. Policy changes must be initiated to overcome hurdles in the gainful involvement of women in viable enterprises.
Initiating government incentive programmes for existing and emerging enterprises that proactively involve women in different hierarchies. Educating present and future entrepreneurs on the unique business and social advantages they stand to derive from this dynamic group.
Facilitating partnerships between women and financial advisory and support agencies; in a way that compensates for their lack of formal business acumen, experience and access to funding. Fostering partnerships between women entrepreneurs in related sectors to help share expertise and resources.
Instituting effective start-up and ongoing support structures with safety net provisions to provide continuous financial, technical and know-how assistance and minimize failure rates. Ensuring ground level efficacy of such measure through continuous monitoring and survey.
Enhancing accountability on women empowerment issues at both state and federal government levels through unbiased assessment of executive agencies and relevant state-sponsored programmes. Suitably highlighting achievements and deficiencies to enable constructive evolution of such practices.
The complementary policy issues in entrepreneurship education should include increasing women enrolment in schools at all levels especially in the field of agriculture to reduce gender inequality. Budgetary allocation should be made to accommodate more continuing and vocational education.
More seminars/workshops should be sponsored and extended to rural areas to increase women’s capacity to start and grow their agribusiness, prepare sound business plan/feasibility studies and increase their technical and managerial capacity in agribusiness.
Modern processing plants/storage facilities should be installed for women groups on government/private joint partnership basis so that women can process and store farm produce with ease.
The enabling environment in terms of gender-friendly policies, good roads, pipe-borne water and electricity should be provided by the various arms of government.
Cooperatives and women groups should be more formally instituted and encouraged among women to position them strategically to access fund and other inputs with ease.
The government should mandate the commercial Banks to produce more gender-friendly loan packages (low interest rates and more relaxed duration of repayment).
Women should be exposed to the latest agro-technology from time-time to remove drudgery in farming, processing and preservation techniques.
Nigerian women should be encouraged to network more, both at the national and international levels for more exposure, to access fund and export information.
Agro-extensions institutions should be boosted and more women extension agents be trained to reduce women to extension workers ratio and for wider coverage of women agriculturists.
Nigeria’s vision of becoming one of the top twenty leading economies of the world by the year 2020, otherwise known simply as vision 20:20 appears compelling enough to energize its over 155million people (nearly half of which are women) to make the vision a reality. To accomplish this laudable goal, there is an urgent need to pay attention to the development of agro-women entrepreneurs so that they can take their place in family advancement and national economic development.
The government and development/change agencies must not only be prepared to recognize the economic role of the women but must also extend to them the same recognition and facilities as the men are enjoying.
Never Underestimate Mother Nature – Women Entrepreneurship Development At Work
Women entrepreneurship development has taken on a life of its’ own over recent years. Women entrepreneurs are revolutionizing the way we work and the way we think. Women empowering women has become the vision for networking groups who are experts in business and in communication.
It’s interesting that in some cases women find it hard to work for other women. But when women work with and not for the same gender the results are magnificent. The shear volume of women starting their own businesses is one of the highest growing trends in business.
What women entrepreneurship development does is take away the politics and the culture of “its either you or me who is going to make it” and replaces it with an abundance of opportunities to be shared. Rejection is replaced by acceptance through sheer determination and making sustainable business connections. Finding like-minded female mentors is key. JK Rowling suffered many rejections before she was catapulted to stardom via the Harry Potter books and movies.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
J.K. Rowling
The time has finally come to turn the ladder of success completely upside down and inspire a new culture amongst women business owners that works on cultivation and confidence.
More and more women entrepreneurship development programs are growing worldwide. From India to Australia groups such as WeConnect International, a US based not for profit organization has now moved into Australia to help provide key tools and joint ventures for those savvy entrepreneurial women who are interested in doing smart business. It is no coincidence that this is happening globally.
There are many reasons why women become their own bosses and it isn’t really that different from their male counterparts. Women want financial stability just like men. Women want to achieve just like men. Women need to feel as if they can make a difference in the world.
If you want success many women business owners understand to do so you have to bust out and seek groups that promote connections and creativity. The force of the businesswomen is one to be reckoned with. Where in the past women tried to perhaps beat each other in the boardroom, these days women entrepreneurship development has encouraged more and more women to work together collaboratively and the results are staggering
