Telecommunications operator, 9mobile, says it has partnered with Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to support Nigerian women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
9mobile, in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said it has started harnessing its technology and networks to promote the Foundation’s award-winning business skills app, HerVenture, to women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
HerVenture is the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s mobile learning app that supports women entrepreneurs to access the skills, confidence and networks they need to grow their businesses.
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The telco said the new partnership was expected to deliver on its objectives by leveraging a combination of 9mobile’s technology and technical expertise with the Foundation’s products and programmes.
It said the partnership would enable the upscaled provision of integrated mobile business support services for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
“In addition to its tech and network support, 9mobile’s soon to launch Payment Service Bank, 9PSB, will also bring added value to the partnership with its innovative online banking facilities for women entrepreneurs.
“Given the effects of the pandemic and the imperative to fast-track the world into a digital economy and create more women entrepreneurs, there is an urgent need to support women to develop the business skills needed to succeed now and post-pandemic.
“The Foundation has responded to this need by enhancing the HerVenture app to offer new opportunities in the digital space, including e-commerce and digital marketing.
“Thanks to the support from 9mobile, this offer will be made available to more women in Nigeria and contribute to stronger and more resilient businesses across the country,” it said.
Helen McEachern, Chief Executive Officer of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, said: “We are thrilled to be working with 9mobile to help bring HerVenture to even more women in Nigeria.
She said that mobile companies had a powerful role in steering women to support products and services they need to grow their businesses and support economic recovery.
McEachern said that by working with the Foundation, 9mobile was helping to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs with the essential skills they need to make their businesses resilient and grow when they could very easily go backwards.
Alan Sinfield, Chief Executive Officer at 9mobile said : “9mobile recognises the importance of leveraging its technology to support very important segments of society like women, to build and grow resilient businesses through this pandemic and beyond.
“We are delighted to be working with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to support their efforts to advance women’s entrepreneurship potentials in Nigeria.
“Over 20,000 women entrepreneurs have been supported through HerVenture in Nigeria so far, with 99 per cent finding the training delivered on the app to be very useful, ” he said .
Sinfield said that users discovered that, on average, their profits increased by 38 per cent and 88 per cent of users increased their customer numbers.
He said that 89 per cent of the Nigerian women using the app also reported that the networks they had developed in the app had been helpful.
Sinfield said that building on this success, the partnership aimed to help thousands more women-owned MSMEs to survive the pandemic by facilitating the uptake of the app’s COVID-adapted offer to women entrepreneurs.
NAN reports that the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women helps release the potential of women entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries, and close the global gender gap in entrepreneurship.
Since the Foundation’s inception in 2008, it has directly supported over 175,000 women across more than 100 countries.