Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs to showcase products

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has taken a step further in their bid to empower women to become world class entrepreneurs by organizing a two-day products exhibition tagged “Advancing Women Entrepreneurship through Exhibition”. The two day products exhibition event, which will come up in Ikeja, Lagos, is in line with the commitment of ILO to Women Entrepreneurship Development.

According to the Programme Coordinator, Mrs Adebimpe Opegbemi, the objectives of the exhibition are to create a platform for the promotion of products made by women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and to facilitate market access for the products of women entrepreneurs. Also, the two-day products exhibition is meant to create visibility for the products made by the women entrepreneurs and to create awareness and interest in the products made by women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The event is open to the public; therefore women entrepreneurs, business operators and the general public are welcome at the exhibition. As said by the coordinator, this will enable them to interact with other women entrepreneurs, update their business intelligence, and catch up with latest technology. The products exhibition event will hold at NECA’s Main Auditorium, Plot A2, Hakeem Balogun Way, Central Business District, Alausa, Ikeja on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10 & 11, 2009.

According to the information released by the organizers, the two-day products exhibition will project the contribution of women entrepreneurs in creating meaningful and sustainable employment opportunities towards poverty reduction. Since the engine of any well-developed economy remains the small and medium enterprises; and are mostly operated by women, it is on record that most of women entrepreneurs are represented in less productive, less profitable and survival activities. Also, women entrepreneurs often have limited access to Business Development Services (BDS) such as market information, market space, sub-contracting, packaging, and marketing promotions such as exhibitions and trade fairs.

It is based on the above that the ILO and NECA put the two day exhibition together to create a platform for the promotion of products of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The event will also facilitate market access for the products of women entrepreneurs and assist them create visibility for their products. This not all, the laudable event will create awareness and interests, not only in the products, but also encourage many women to properly harness their natural endowment and capacity to create enduring wealth.

It will be recalled that NECA, in collaboration with ILO recently packaged a one-day Sensitisation Workshop to promote enabling environment for women entrepreneurship development. At the workshop, participants were drawn from the Trade Union Congress, the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Federal Ministry of Labour. A business development brainstorming session was organized for the Nigerian women entrepreneurs about two weeks ago in continuation of the efforts to develop small and medium scale women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Another workshop on Windows of Investments was packaged to give details on various ways women entrepreneurs can venture and raise funds to move their businesses to the next level.

Prior to the packaging of the coming two-day product exhibition event, the International Labour Organisation and Nigeria Employers Consultative Association had organized a forum to assess the environment in relation to Women Entrepreneurship Development. According to the end-of-workshop report, the Nigerian environment is yet to be fully conducive for women entrepreneurs to thrive, owing to factors that are militating against women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

The two-day product exhibition will further strengthen the women entrepreneurs to overcome challenges confronting them in running successful businesses in Nigeria.

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